Space Tracking
by SaterHelberg
Summary: A GotG adventure with a whodunit plotline. It's about trust and friendship. Tag line: the universe is a big place. How to find a missing person? Kree, Skrull, Nova officers and a Guardian join a strange 'mission' and disappear. Desperate to find them back, Rhomann Dey and the remaining Guardians get help from a mysterious cat-like alien who claims he can track lost persons.
1. Koolstof 2

Notes

Although Rocket is my favourite, this is not a Rocket-centric story. The Guardians meet friends and foes across the universe, creating coalitions to solve the mystery and get their lost ones back. I tried to put in a little fun here and there. I'm stretching the canon a bit to show unexpected qualities of some of the Guardians. No sex and hardly any fluff; this should be an almost readable fanfic. :)

I introduce two OC's and two cross-over characters. Beatrix Farmer is character portrayed in the series 'Tales of Beatrix' by Taral Wayne and Steve Gallacci. It's Beatrix _Farmer_ , not to be confused with Beatrix _Potter_. The second cross-over character is Muzo (I spell his name 'Muzzo' in English) from an old French comic called 'Placid et Muzo'. I just like the characters and gave them a little role. My OC's are called Sam and Susan. They will appear later, after a number of chapters.

* * *

 **Koolstof 2**

'Koolstof 2, Small Magellanic Cloud. Gravity 1.6 G. Carbon planet. Famous for Spare Part Market, cheap ale and fuel. Avoid the tar pits.'

"What are you reading, Rocky?" Peter asked.

"I've bought this transgalactic tourist guide. Listen to what it says: accordin' to legend, you'll find diamonds as big as watermelons in the tar pits if ya dig deep enough."

"Yeah, I've overheard the locals talking about that myth. You'll probably dig up the skeletons of the idiots who tried."

With big eyes, the raccoon said, "A diamond as big as a watermelon! Ya know what that means? Ya can buy half a planet and enjoy the good life."

"You're not going for that, seriously?"

"I won't dig you up if you got stuck in a tar pit," Gamora joked.

"Like ya ever did somethin' for me, Gam."

"The hell I did! We dragged our asses to this sorry planet because you needed parts. I hope you found enough junk to blow this place to pieces," she riposted.

"Not true! We came for the cheap fuel, remember? We're low on units."

"It's a bit of both," Peter intermediated.

"You told me we had a day off. We're here to enjoy the ale," Drax said.

"I am Groot," Groot suggested.

"There ain't no trees here, who told ya that?"

"I am Groot?"

"Whaddya think they use ta make fuel?"

His buddy looked shocked.

"Jes' kiddin', jes' kiddin'," Rocket smirked.

Moving around on an oversized planet to do their shopping had rendered the Guardians weary. The mild sun was shining brightly on this slowly rotating world with days that didn't seem to end. The ale was cheap but tasty. They lost time on the giant terrace filled with simple plastic tables, outdoor chairs and rows of bars that stretched from horizon to horizon.

Peter gazed vacantly at the multicoloured crowd. He saw many humanoid and non-humanoid alien species talking in more languages than his universal translator was able to handle. They were sitting together in relative peace, drinking beverages. _This was how life should be_ , he mused.

About ten tables ahead, his eyes spotted three humanoids with a light blue skin colour. He watched them casually. Absent-mindedly, he mumbled, "Even the Kree know this place."

Drax, who was sitting next to him, asked, "Did you say something, Peter?"

"Kree. Even the Kree visit this place."

Drax saw them immediately with his sharp eyes and confirmed, "Yes, these men are Kree."

Rocket was squabbling with Gamora. It sounded like the two of them had a disagreement, but they actually were teasing each other and had a good time. Rocket's ears involuntarily turned towards Drax as he caught up some words. While still bickering with Gamora, he gazed briefly in the same direction as his fellow Guardians and noticed the blue men too.

Peter said, "I wonder what they are doing here. This doesn't look like a typical Kree hang-out."

"Kree do not hang out."

Peter wasn't sure if he got Drax right. Did he mean _they do not literally hang out_ or did he mean _they do not hang out as a figure of speech_?

Meanwhile, Gamora had turned her head and mingled into the discussion. "It's odd to see three of them in one place. They mostly travel in larger groups."

Rocket emptied his ale. After three beers, he wasn't drunk yet, but close. He licked his lips and said, "Why dontcha go over and shake hands? Kree are our best friends." He grinned. _And if they were enemies, they had to be kept close too_.

"No chance in hell I get off this chair today," Peter protested.

"Then you have to stay here for another 80 hours before the sun sets," Drax replied dryly.

"80 hours? I better order the next round then," Peter joked.

* * *

While the sun was still high in the sky, the Guardians strolled back to their ship. Drax, who hadn't drunk as much as the rest, spotted five Kree in battle uniforms standing in front of the entrance of the Milano. He said, "Look over there," and pointed with his head in the direction.

They moved further at a slower pace. Rocket took his big gun from his shoulder and wielded it in his paws, somewhat unsteadily. Peter opened his jacket and held his hand close to his weapon. Gamora pulled her sword and Drax took his knifes out of their sheaths. Groot stayed put with Rocket. This way they steadily approached the Milano.

Peter moved up front. Closing in, he waved his hand in a vague military salute and asked, "Gentlemen, what brings us the pleasure?"

A Kree with one decoration more than the rest, made a small step forward and replied, "Are you the ones calling themselves 'The Guardians of the Galaxy'?"

"We're known by that name," Peter answered, glancing to both sides to point to his crew, at the same time checking their readiness in case a fight would break out.

"We want you to come with us."

"For what reason?"

"You stand accused of killing Ronan."

Peter was taken aback by this absurd answer, then snorted with disbelief on his face, "This got to be a joke!"

"We are not joking. We do not take his death lightly."

Now Peter exclaimed in outrage, "The freak was going to kill a planet! Excuse us for knocking him down first, but he had it coming."

Gamora scrutinised the group of combatants. She interjected, "Under whose command are you acting? I don't recognise your uniforms. Did the High Command send you?"

"No. Our faction is loyal to Ronan and his wife. Your deed cannot go unpunished."

Peter riposted, "That's completely ridiculous. If you have a complaint, take it up with the Nova Corps. Maybe you can apply for reparations for the widow."

Rocket chuckled. This was his kind of sarcasm. He barked, "That's right, ya dickheads. Killing a planet comes with a risk. Quit yer winin' and buzz off. Ya can send my regards to his grievin' wife."

The Kree leader faced Peter and asked unmoved, "Were you placed under the operational command of the Nova Corps?"

Star-Lord grunted, "No, we act independently. We just really object to genocide. Now will you move aside, we're tired and want to go home."

Drax struck a battle pose, spreading his arms and firmly holding his knifes in both fists. Two more Kree had joined the group from behind the craft. They formed a semicircle with their colleagues.

Peter commanded, "This is what we're gonna do. You either step back and let us go to our ship, or we will cut our way through you."

Rocket saw one of the soldiers make a move for his weapon. The raccoon immediately fired. He aimed for the chest, but his shaky gun hit the man in the stomach. The soldier fell and hit the ground.

The Kree reached for their arms. In a fraction of a second, Drax made two steps forward and planted his knifes into the rightmost soldier, one of the newcomers. Peter dropped to the ground. Two Kree to the left had opened fire on him; one of them hit him in his right leg. He shot his attacker down while falling. Rocket blasted the other one, but got hit in the kidney zone with a bolt of return fire. He went down. Groot immediately placed himself in front of his wounded friend and took a number of hits. Rocket was on the ground, but managed to shoot between Groot's legs, disabling another soldier.

The leader aimed his gun at Gamora, who simply chopped off the hand holding the weapon. She kicked a second attacker towards Drax, the latter cut his head clean off in one swing. Then Gamora stuck her sword to the throat of the amputated man. There was no blood flowing out of his wounded arm; his suit apparently had sealed the cut automatically. "You have made a big mistake," she snapped at him.

"Do not think this is over! There are many more of us!" he threatened her.

Out of the corner of her right eye, she could see Drax strike a dramatic fighting pose, arms bent down symmetrically, fists clenching the bloodstained, dripping knifes. He was calling out a battle cry.

Peter, trying to get up and hobble on one leg, detected what Drax had seen seconds earlier: a new group of Kree soldiers rushed in from behind the far end of the Milano. He quickly decided, "Into the ship, now!"

Groot lifted up Rocket.

"I can walk, ya big log," he complained. As Groot took him, he yelped and whined, "Flark, I'm hurt."

Peter ran up the stairs as fast as he could, supported by Gamora. Drax kept facing the closing attack group and dodged a few shots. The green warrior woman shouted, "Get in, Drax, we have wounded to tend to."

Drax grunted in disappointment and followed them in.

* * *

Gamora took the pilot seat. The Milano went into orbit to the other side of the giant planet and then left in a vertical ascend at sub light-speed. As soon as the distance to Koolstof 2 was large enough, Gamora chose a random destination and activated the hyper-luminous drive. This was a common escape strategy.

Next thing she went to the sickbay. Groot had already laid Rocket on a stretcher. Peter was sitting on a chair next by, about to take off his trousers.

"Be careful," Gamora said, "these are burn wounds. Don't pull off your skin."

"I know," Peter said.

Rocket was not happy to be in sickbay. He hated medical treatments. Gamora had worked with him before and had developed a no-nonsense attitude. She opened his jacket, carefully pulling at the fabric that covered the burn wound. A patch of molten hairs was sticking to the garment. She took a knife to cut them, so the hairs did not pull at the skin while she removed the jacket.

"I can do that myself, just go help Star-Dork, will ya?"

Gamora ignored the protest of the smallest team member. She took a bottle of disinfectant and sprayed it on the wound.

"Aaaah! Rocket screamed, "Stop that, it stings like hell."

"Come on you pussy, stop bitching and act like a man."

The raccoon sat up and made a threatening growl that failed to impress Gamora. She pushed the ring-tailed Guardian back to the table and pinned him firmly while she rubbed the wound with a disinfected cloth, ignoring his moans and curses. "There, it's clean," she assured him when she was done.

"Bitch!"

"Baby!"

She handed the angry raccoon a cloth with disinfectant and salve in a tube. "Clean your hands. You can apply the ointment yourself."

Rocket eyeballed her with a snarl, tending to his wounds while Gamora checked on Peter. The Star-Lord had seated himself in his underpants, managed to pull off one pipe of his pants and slowly rolled the second down. He had reached the messy burn spot. Gamora cut a hole in the pants with a pair of scissors, earning a dismayed look from Peter.

He protested, "What are you doing! Those are my favourite pants."

"Those are your only pants."

"Not true, I have a spare."

"Then what are you complaining about?"

The woman cautiously cut away the patch that was stuck to Peter's leg. After a while, the wound was uncovered. She gave it the same treatment as Rocket's injury, causing Peter to grind his teeth to bear the pain.

Meanwhile, Groot had started to bandage Rocket. Gamora looked at him with a surprised expression on her face, saying, "I didn't know you could do that, Groot."

"I am Groot."

The raccoon explained, "He has followed an online first aid course."

Groot tugged the bandage firmly and Rocket complained, "Ouch, ye're windin' it too tight!"

"No, he's doing it right. The gauze should stay in place; otherwise, your wound will get infected. You don't want a festering burn wound."

Meanwhile Peter had managed to bandage himself.

* * *

A small space cruiser, about hundred metres long, landed on a desert planet called Waa'i-Du'in 3. A platform descended from underneath. Two blue men walked off and took a few steps into the sand. Their white coats looked reddish in the light of the weak sun. One of them carried an oversized test tube. The other man held a large view screen between his hands.

"Arrival?" the one with the test tube asked.

"7 hours and 35 minutes."

"Initiating dispersion measurement."

The test tube contained a small view screen on the side. The operator tapped on a symbol. The upper part of the test tube was sealed off, except for a nozzle. A ring around this small spigot blinked three times. The men waited patiently while minutes passed.

Finally, a message appeared on the large view screen. The scientist who held it, reported,

"Dispersion rate: 0.03."

"OK, that is within the expected range. We have to wait for their final position. If they stay for a day, a ten kilometre radius should be sufficient."

The men walked back onto the platform and rose into the ship.


	2. Desert Shelter

**Desert Shelter**

'Waa'i-Du'in 3 [pronounce as why - do - in], Small Magellanic Cloud. Gravity 0.9 G. Rural desert planet; limited space travel. Main attraction: moving sand dunes," Rocket read from his transgalactic tourist guide and said, "Sounds like ya picked a good planet to relax, Gam."

"I didn't pick it, it was selected at random."

"We should lay low for a few days. My burn mark is itchin' like hell."

"I agree. Peter is still limping. I hope he can catch some sleep."

"I didn't. The itch woke me up."

"That or the booze had spent its forces. I told you before; it's not the best sleep medication."

"Ye're bitchin' again. I shot down two guys, drunk an' all. You jes' chopped off a hand."

"You got hit, I didn't."

"Yeah right! Blame the victim."

For a While, they watched the stars speeding by.

Gamora resumed, "Peter contacted the Nova Corps. They were most interested in the rogue Kree group we encountered. If these Ronan adepts are serious, they may pose a threat to Xandar."

"I didn't even know the ugly sonuvabitch was married, did you?"

"His spouse is called Crystal, she's one of the Inhumans."

"The Inhumans? Do ya think they're involved?"

"That would be a problem. They have formidable powers," Gamora answered.

"I still don' understand this whole charade. Why gettin' at us fer revenge? What's their game?"

"There's a political smell to it. Maybe they're plotting against Xandar and have the audacious plan to use us as leverage."

"This raccoon ain't nobody's bargainin' chip, I tell ya," Rocket proudly exclaimed, pointing with a thumb to himself. He added, "I've done some thinkin'. If they're really after us, they've probably planted a tracker on us. When we land, I'm gonna check the ship thoroughly."

"That sounds like a prudent thing to do."

* * *

Rocket landed the ship in a quiet place, somewhere at the edge of a cold desert. The weak sun shone a reddish light on the barren place. To Rocket it felt like sun set; but judging from the position of the star, it was the middle of the day.

He and Groot started to look at the bottom section of the ship for suspicious devices. Groot lifted him up, moving him slowly along the surface of the hull. Rocket had put a headband on with a lamp attached to the front, highlighting the coloured metal.

Soon after, Peter came down the stairs and walked towards the busy couple, saying, "Gam told me you were looking for tracking devices."

"Yep."

"Can I help?"

"You know yer own ship best. Look fer anythin' that's outta place."

Peter went back into the ship and came out with a light. He inspected the wings. After ten minutes he called to Rocket, "You found something?"

"No, not yet. We'll continue to check the rest of the hull."

"OK, I'm going back in then."

* * *

Soon after, the tree and the mammal entered the ship. "Didn't find a thing," Rocket said with disappointment.

"Still, good precaution," Peter complimented the two.

"Sure, sure."

Drax was up too. He was sharpening his knifes. It was his daily routine. If he had used them, he cleaned and honed them; if he hadn't used them, he sharpened them anyway. He believed they could lose sharpness even when kept in their sheaths. Moreover, the air surrounding them could make them blunt. That wouldn't do.

Rocket nibbled on a soft, heated dough thingy with a meaty sauce inside he got from the food dispenser. It was still too hot to eat. The raccoon was hungry and in his eagerness, he burned his tongue a bit. Then he was quiet for a while and looked at his half-eaten snack with a pensive expression.

Peter observed him and said, "What's on your mind, Rocky?

The ringtail chewed some more and replied, "I don' understand why I didn't find anythin'. These creeps didn't look like amateurs to me."

"Don't worry, we're safe here. This is a no man's planet."

"Not according to the tourist guide," Gamora brought up. "There's a small town, not far from here. You guys bought a lot of booze, but we're low on food."

"We're not! The dispenser's filled up," Rocket protested with his mouth full.

Gamora said, "I can't live on dispenser food for months. I need proteins, fruit and vegetables to keep my body in shape."

Peter smirked. He was going to make a remark but Gamora cut him off. She insisted, "Don't say it! I know what's on your mind. You better work on your shape too if you want to make a chance with the other sex at all."

Peter put on a pouty face. He lifted his shirt and grabbed his abs. "Hey, no woman has ever complained to me. Look at this six-pack. I'm in prime condition. Are you sure you're a female of your kind?"

Rocket snickered. Gamora threw the tourist guide at Peter's head.

The raccoon exclaimed, "Hey watch it, that gizmo's expensive!"

Peter lost his concentration. His belly flapped out of shape before his shirt coiled back.

"You must mean a six-pack of ale," Gamora retorted with a nasty look on her face. "Enough fun for today. I'm going to visit the locals. Anyone care to join me?"

Drax answered, "I'll come with you. I want to stretch my legs."

After a three-kilometre walk, Drax and Gamora reached an oasis village. It was built on a rocky hill, covered with fern trees and a multitude of white, tent-like houses. The main road went straight over the middle of the hill. To both sides, the tent buildings were spread out irregularly with small paths between them.

The residents were one head smaller than the reddish man and the green woman - who looked very dark in the red sunlight. The skin of the inhabitants was coffee-brown and velvety. They wore dark coloured, wrapped cloth garments with a hood from under which a muzzle protruded. None of them directed their large, bulging eyes to the newcomers. Apparently, they were used to seeing other species.

In the middle of the village, there was a large building, about eight metres high. It was erected with long and thin upstanding wooden beams, resembling bamboo. The posts were bound together on top in groups of four. The base of this construction had to be a regular grid. A large, patched sheet was draped onto the beams as a roof.

The two visitors entered the building. A long row of tables meandered between the steep, slanting beams. Merchants displayed their goods. A multitude of oil lanterns made this souk brighter than the dim outside.

First, they moseyed around. The market provided for a rich variety of goods. Not only vegetables, herbs and fruits, but also knifes, swords, furniture and even some modern technologic equipment.

When Gamora wanted to buy some groceries and showed a handful of credits, the shopkeeper pointed to a stand in the corner of the large hall. There she could change units into local currency. To her satisfaction, ten credits represented so much counter value that she could buy food for a month.

Drax had checked out some of the blades, but was not impressed. While the green woman piled up more and more goods, Drax went over to her and said, "I'm going to recon the village."

"I need you to carry this stuff back with me."

"Make a deal with the locals."

"Men!" Gamora exclaimed.

The local salesmen and women had wrapped the merchandise up in 'bags' made of knotted ropes. It would take a number of hands to carry the collection. Luckily, she found a stand with a carrier who swiftly packed all the stuff onto the back of a transport animal. It was a ruggedly furred creature the size of a small horse. With its protruding muzzle and bulging eyes it strangely resembled the locals, Gamora thought with inner amusement, but politely kept a straight face.

While she and the animal handler left the market, she could see Drax stroll off over the main road in the distance. At a certain point, he took a turn to the right and disappeared into the maze of small houses.

* * *

The four-footed carrier had a slow gait. After a trip of an hour, the travelling group arrived at the parked ship. The handler helped Gamora to unload and bring the goods into the pantry. She gave him his fee and he walked back to his town.

"Where's Drax?" Peter asked.

"Thank you Gam, for taking good care of us," Gamora replied.

"That too," he riposted.

"Drax wanted to see more of the village. Don't ask me why. It's a backwater planet."

"Maybe he went to look for a bar."

"I don't think they have one. Didn't see any alcohol on sale in the souk."

* * *

Drax climbed over the small passageways between the tent buildings, towards the highest peak of the oasis. In the distance, he could make out the Milano. He held a vision enhancement device to his eyes and slowly turned around to scan the environment. When he had turned half circle, he suddenly spotted an unknown, small shuttle in the desert close to the village. He spied at it, using his vision tool's zoom function. It was hard to see if there was anyone inside.

This discovery worried him. What if Rocket was right and the Kree had followed them to this place? He descended from the rock, taking a zigzag path towards the vessel.

As he left the village and stepped into the sand, he noticed a movement through the corner of his eye. Someone went into hiding behind a house. _Too big for a local_ , he thought. Drax changed direction. He strode past the tents at the edge of the oasis, peeking between the buildings. At a well-chosen point, he took a path back into the village. He had passed one house, when he saw a startled man to his right. It was a Kree with a prosthetic hand.

"You?!" Drax shouted at him. He ran towards the blue man and pinned him before he could make a move. The Destroyer took out a knife and put it to his throat, while he disarmed the man with his other hand.

"Please, no hasty decisions," the Kree commander begged him.

"Not so tough now you're on your own?"

"We're not after you! We made a mistake," the man replied nervously.

"Do you take me for a fool? We knew you were following us. This time you will not get away."

"Listen to me. Listen to me! Let me explain."

"How many men in your shuttle?

"But ..."

Drax repeated the question with a louder voice. The scared Kree said, "Two!"

"Good. Now bring me to them."

"OK, OK. Careful with the knife."

The men walked a few hundred metres. Drax was holding his blade to the back of the man. When they approached the vessel, the door opened and a Kree stepped into the doorway. The commander ordered, "Drop your gun and let Yor-Bat do the same!"

The crew member obeyed without hesitation. He slowly came out the door. Behind him followed a second man, who also dropped his weapon into the sand. They held their hands up and cautiously moved a few paces away from the abandoned weapons.

"Where is the rest of your crew?" the Guardian demanded, as he and the captain closed in on the two Kree.

"We have a small intergalactic ship, parked at the other end of this desert," his captive replied.

"You will take me to it!"

The men stepped into the small craft and took off. During the flight, the captain said, "We are no danger to you. It is no longer you we are after, I tried to tell you."

"I do not believe a word you say."

"You will see. I can explain everything when we are aboard.


	3. Separation

**Separation**

The shuttle crossed the desert. From afar, a spaceship came into sight. On approach, the ship's docking bay opened and the shuttle landed inside. Shortly before, Drax had set the gun he captured on stun. After the landing, he fired at the two crew members to incapacitate them. He gestured at the captain to step out. They walked through a corridor towards the cockpit. The men passed closed doors to the left and to the right of the hallway. The cautious warrior watched them attentively, ready to fight if this would turn out to be an ambush.

Finally, they entered a door at the front side, onto the flight deck. Drax stepped out of the doorway and then to the side, to have his back covered by a wall. There were four officers in the cockpit; some reached for their weapons. Immediately, the captain ordered, "Stand down!"

The men did not pursue any defensive actions, but looked at the leader with a puzzled expression. He continued, "Drax the Destroyer is our guest. He will come with us."

"I did not agree to such a thing. You will fly this vessel to our landing site."

The captain slowly turned towards him. "May I please have a word with you now?" he asked.

"You want to negotiate?" Drax answered with unbelief.

"There are things you should know."

Drax gestured at the crewmen to move into a corner of the cabin, where he could watch them. He said to the captain, "You have one minute to explain."

The blue man paused for a moment. Then he elaborated, "We have orders to capture the killers of Ronan. We thought the Guardians were responsible. However, we received new information. The actions of Ronan have been led by Thanos."

"Thanos?!" Drax exclaimed.

"Yes."

Drax was baffled. He frowned while many thoughts crossed his mind. Ronan had killed his wife and daughter. For a long time, he had sought revenge and he finally got it. However, Ronan's death didn't satisfy him. Thanos, the mastermind, had to die too. Suddenly, the Kree captain had his full attention. He decided to put his mistrust aside for the time being and concluded, "Then I presume you want to capture Thanos instead."

"That is our new mission."

"Not an easy task. How will you proceed?"

"You see how fortunate we are to have found you! If there is any man in the universe who has the proper motive and skills to capture Thanos, it is you, Drax the Destroyer!"

"Enough with the flattering. How are you going to find Thanos?"

"We have an advanced tracking system. It will take some time but we will find him."

The warrior was silent for a few moments. He had to make a decision. This was almost too good to be true. Finally, he said, "Agreed. I will come with you. But first I have to contact my fellow Guardians."

"Excellent," the blue-faced leader said and formally extended his hand. Drax shook it with uneasiness. He put his knifes back in their sheaths and handed the captured gun back to his owner.

* * *

Meanwhile, in one of the ship's compartments, two men wearing white coats were monitoring the conversation of the captain with the Destroyer. One of them got up abruptly, almost in panic, unlocked the door, run through the corridor and took back speed while he entered the cockpit.

Drax and the captain faced the man standing in front of the doorway. Drax looked at him distrustfully. The white coat stammered, "Captain, please, if ... if I may, Sir."

"What is it? Can't you see we're in the middle of something?"

"I'm very sorry ... it's ... I thought you may want to know ... we need ten more minutes."

The leader looked at him with dismay. He ordered, waving his hand dismissively, "Fine. Leave and don't bother us again."

"What was that about?" Drax asked.

The Kree didn't answer directly. His eyes made a small jitter to the left.

The Destroyer grew impatient, "I asked you a question. What are you up to?"

The captain replied in an oily voice, "Please, you have to forgive my co-worker. He is ... in contact with the team who operates the tracking device. We ... may have more news in ten minutes."

"Good," his guest acknowledged. Then he added sternly, "You are hiding something from me. What is it you are not telling?"

The leader started to look more composed and informed him, "I have some thoughts about contacting your crew. Of course, you should notify them. But maybe it is wise to wait until we have left the planet."

"And why would that be?"

"Think about it: will they sympathise with this mission?"

The question made Drax ponder. Finally, he answered, "Why not? Thanos is a danger to the universe. It will be a fitting pursuit to seize him."

"Yes, but he's also Gamora's father. What if, let's say, he gets _killed_ while we try to capture him?" he hinted. "Would she agree? Or, reversely, maybe she wants the honour for herself. Should we debate this in advance or do you prefer to act while the trail is hot?"

More thoughts were crossing the warrior's mind. He frowned while he took it all in. Then he smiled slightly and replied, "It will be my pleasure to kill him." He continued, "I will go along with you for the time being. If I find out however that you have plans to deceive me, Thanos will not be the only one who dies," he added with a menacing look.

"I can understand how our past actions have made you distrustful. Yet, I can assure you that we have a common interest. I hope you will learn to trust us."

The warrior didn't reply. He took a backseat in the cockpit. The captain ordered the crew to get back to their seats. They prepared for take-off and soon after, the Kree ship left the desert world.

"What is our destination?" Drax asked.

"We are heading for a planet where the tracking equipment is set up. As soon as we have confirmation, we will hunt him down. As a sign of good faith, I will open a communication channel with your crew in a short while."

Drax nodded.

The captain turned around to continue commanding his crew. Almost unnoticeably, he gazed at a clock. _Five minutes had elapsed. Five more needed to pass. He was confident that the fear-inspiring warrior would trust him after that. His lab assistant had done a good job in warning him._

* * *

"Drax is taking his time," Peter complained, "I'm getting hungry."

"Why don't you start cooking? There's plenty of food," Gamora suggested.

"Me? Cooking? I've never cooked in my life. I thought that was your job."

Not amused by this remark, the Most Dangerous Woman in the Universe rebutted, "You want me to do the shopping and the cooking? What do I look like, a housewife?"

"Well, it was your idea and I can't cook," Peter replied with an innocent expression on his face.

"Fine, I'll look for somebody else to do the job."

"Good luck with that, Gam," Peter wished. _Not much chance_ , he thought. _No way the forest creature department would be of any help_.

The tree-man said, "I am Groot."

"That's right," Rocket remarked, "Groot can cook."

Gamora and Peter looked at Groot in amazement and then to each other. "Groot's a cook?" Star-Lord asked very surprised.

"He ain't no cook, he didn't say that. He can cook. Look, in some prisons we escaped from, we worked in the kitchen. Groot did the cookin' while I looked fer a way to get out. So he knows a few recipes."

"I am Groot!"

"How can he cook, he doesn't even eat!" Peter objected.

"We didn't hear any complaints from the inmates!" the raccoon exclaimed, then continued in a lower voice, grinning, "'coz mostly we 'd left the premises when they started eatin'."

Groot hadn't waited for the discussion to finish; he already had settled in the pantry, put some large, calabash-like vegetables on the table and mashed them with his hands. Rocket watched him and said, "Hey, we got tools for that."

"I am Groot!"

"Oh, you don't want me around. Fine, do it yerself," he muttered and let the chef to his own device.

Finally, appetising vapours came out of the improvised kitchen. One after the other, the crewmembers came in and sat down at the small table. Groot had produced a large pan with hot, orange mash and scooped it onto three plates.

"What about Drax," Gamora asked.

"I am Groot."

"There's plenty left for him," the raccoon translated.

Peter tested the food with his fork. Groot had cooked the tough shell fragments of the vegetables with the rest. He picked a shell part and chewed it, but had to spit it out.

"I am Groot."

Rocket explained, "This is turnip stew or somethin' ... It's turnip, right?" he asked and looked at Groot. "Anyhow, you're s'posed ta eat the soft mush, not the shells."

"Why did he leave the shells in?"

"Fer the vitamins, of course. Gee, ya really don't know the basics of food processin', do ya?"

Peter shook his head convincingly. "And what are the dark grey bits?" he inquired.

Rocket stuck his fork into one of the small, finger-sized grey parts. It made a crunching sound while he chewed it. The raccoon smiled contently.

"Groot, this is delish! Deep-fried grubs, I love it."

Peter had picked up one of the dead insects and looked at it with disgust. "Grubs? That's gross! I can't eat that!"

"Come on, taste one, ya spoiled brat. They're really good! Lotsa proteins."

Star-Lord just pushed the grubs to the rim of his plate with the back end of his fork and then used the instrument to shove the mush into his mouth. "It needs some salt," he commented.

* * *

They were still eating when the onboard communicator made a buzzing sound. Peter got up and sped into the cockpit. On a com screen, Drax looked back at him.

"Drax, where are you? We started to worry." He was going to mention the meal, but then he noticed Drax was sitting in an unknown space ship, which made him worry a bit more.

Drax took the word and said, "I am fine. I will not be coming for some time."

"Where are you? What's going on?"

Drax calmly replied, "I am on a ship, moving away from this planet."

Peter interjected anxiously, "Did the Kree kidnap you?"

"No, they did not. In fact, ... I have new information. They are no longer after us."

"How do you know that?"

"Because I am on their ship."

"You're hiding in a Kree ship? That's some move. Quickly, give me the flight data so we can come after you."

"That is not necessary. They know I am aboard. We made a deal."

This took Peter aback. He didn't disapprove rogue actions per se, but striking a deal behind his back was not something he was going to accept. He inquired warily, "They know you are there and they overhear this conversation?"

Drax nodded.

Peter tensely rubbed his forehead with his right hand. In a lower voice he said, "Why didn't you contact us right away? What the hell is this all about?"

"You do not need to be concerned. I have this under control. These Kree agreed to take me to one of their mission centres."

"Just like that, huh? In case you're wondering, I like to believe that we're a team, so don't tell me I shouldn't be concerned!" Star-Lord said with angry sarcasm.

"Look, Peter, there was no time to plan this well. The Kree are tracking Thanos. They blame him for Ronan's death. Can you see how this is a unique opportunity to rid the universe of a great danger?"

"Drax, I thought we were doing things together. I don't like your stand-alone action one bit. Let us at least help you," he said with a pleading voice.

Drax stubbornly replied, "I am going to kill this devil! You and Gamora may disagree. I have to do this, Peter. You can not stop me."

"OK, OK, I get it. You got revenge issues. But even then, we're still a team." Thinking for a moment he added, "And yes, you're right. I don't like this idea of a vendetta against one of the most powerful half-gods in the universe. Who says you will kill him? What if he kills you?"

"It is my destiny to kill Thanos! I see now how I have been working towards this all along. I can do it, Quill, I can feel it!" he bragged enthusiastically and then continued in a calmer voice, "I appreciate your concern, but I do not want to put you and the Guardians in danger."

"That's my call, not yours!" Peter asserted. "Give me at least a coordinate where we can rendezvous. We need to put our heads together on this. You need to get back to the team!"

The Destroyer looked to his right and had a discussion with a crewmember outside the view area. Finally, Peter could see a hand reaching him a data sheet. A cybernetic hand.

"Agreed. Here are the coordinates of our destination. It is in a neighbour galaxy. By the time you get there, we can meet and work something out."

"OK, Drax, I'm glad we do it this way."

The screen went blank.

Meanwhile, the rest of the crew had joined Star-Lord one by one and picked up parts of the conversation.

"This sucks big time!" Rocket muttered. "We should put a leash on that big flarkin' idiot."

Gamora and Peter looked at him in agreement.

The latter sighed and then decided, "OK, let's be as rational about this as possible. I'm going to have a few words with Drax once the crew is reassembled. But first, we have to get to this place they're taking him."

"Rocky, program in the destination he gave us. We're leaving."

Rocket didn't need commands. He already had taken the pilot seat and was operating the controls. A star map emerged on a big view screen. He looked at it and then shook his head. There was some kind of error. He pushed a few buttons, inspected the map, walked over to the communications panel, run diagnostics, checked the map again and then called for Peter, letting him know, "Pete, something 's wrong with the coordinates he gave us."

"What's wrong?"

"It's bogus. It doesn't lead ta any place."

"Are you sure?"

"Check it fer yerself. It's fake data."

Peter punched in a few buttons, looked at the star map and then frowned, asking, "How's that possible?"

"My guess would be: someone doesn't wan' us to go there."

"Flark!" Peter exclaimed. "Now we have no idea where he is."

"We can track the com signal," Rocket suggested and went to it. For a while, he was busy analysing the com logs, looking at star maps, making computations. Finally, he got something. "Here we go," he announced. The map came up with an object, but it wasn't what the smart Raccoon had hoped for. "D'ast! It's a relay station," he exclaimed disappointedly and concluded, "Someone definitely doesn't want us ta know where they're goin'."

Gamora said, "Did you notice: the guy who gave him the data had a prosthetic hand? I bet that's the guy whose hand I chopped off. I believe Drax sincerely wanted to meet us. These Kree are deceiving him!"

"That brainless cave man!" Rocket barked, upset. "He walked into a trap with open eyes. Flark it! Why does he always have ta do stupid things like that?" In frustration, he banged his clenched paw at a console and hurt it. He took it into the other hand and rubbed his sore knuckles.

Peter said, "OK, let's presume he has been kidnapped but he doesn't know it. And we have no idea where he can be. This is bad." He covered his face with both hands and rubbed his forehead with his fingertips.

"There must be a tracker," Rocket remarked. "We didn't find it, but it has ta be on our ship, somewhere. We landed on a random planet, no way they could've guessed it's location. I'm goin' ta find that tracker and then we'll get these krutackers."

"OK," Peter replied, "do whatever you need to do." He looked at his furry friend with some concern and added, "But don't take the whole ship apart, OK?


	4. Tracks in the Sand

**Tracks in the Sand**

Peter walked into the pantry. The turnip/ grub meal hadn't been very satisfying and he needed something compensatory from the food dispenser. Unfortunately, the machine was largely disassembled while a little raccoon sat amidst the parts, screwing them further apart.

"Rocket! Not the food dispenser! What are you doing?"

"I'm makin' a device that can look through the outer hull structure. Need a few coils from this machine."

"I'm hungry."

"What do ya prefer, Quill, a greasy bite or yer crew member back? Take some fruit from the left storage closet. I heard they taste like apples."

With reluctance, Peter grabbed one of these far too healthy products of nature and chewed it noisily.

"Can ya do that somewhere else? I need ta concentrate."

* * *

Not much later, Rocket and Groot were repeating their search pattern on the outside of the Milano. The ring-tailed engineer held his improvised _Eddy current device_ in one hand and his view screen in the other. Now he could spot irregularities hidden under the coating, deeper within the metal.

After five minutes, he discovered a circular pattern in a lower part of the hull. He asked his buddy to hand him a cutting torch. He cut a surrounding circle through the metal. When the cutting fell out, he shone a light inside and grinned. A flat, round device had been attached to an inner layer of the hull.

The crafty mammal stuck his arm into the hole, cautiously deactivating the magnetic coupling of the device and took it out.

* * *

Triumphantly he marched into the Milano and walked towards Peter. He reported, "I've got good news an' bad news. The bad news is, I cut a hole in yer crate. Ya might want ta weld it back in place. The good thing is: I found this gizmo."

"Great work, Rocky! Groot, can you help me fix the hole?"

The tree-man and Peter went outside to repair the small damage.

Meanwhile, the clever mammal started to tinker with the tracking device. It was a quantum link tracker. He knew that this gadget had a booby-trap and couldn't just be unscrewed. Making a complete scan first to study the inner composition wasn't advisable either, because that could sever the quantum link with the source. He hoped to be able to dismantle it partially and reverse the tracking system somehow to find the crooks who were using it.

He used the kitchen table as a workbench. With precision clamps, he fixated the little machine. He meticulously made a partial scan without disturbing the quantum mechanism, to reveal a section of the internal structure he was looking for.

By the time Groot and Star-Lord came back in, he had drilled a set of minuscule holes into the device to block the anti-tampering system. With a laser cutter, he removed a part of the upper cover. Cautiously he defused the explosive charge.

Gamora observed him, standing motionlessly in the doorway of the kitchen. When the brave raccoon had taken out the miniature bomb, she breathed out almost unnoticeably. Rocket looked up and saw her. She applauded silently and spoke,

"So you managed to keep all your fingers attached."

"Gamora, what can I do fer ya? It seems I have time on my hands."

"You have an explosive quantum tracker on your hands," she joked. She walked slowly into the kitchen and sat down. "What are you going to do next?"

"Are you an expert?"

"I've seen these before. Usually there's a quantum-locked pair."

"That's the general idea. If the pair is symmetric, we can reverse the transponder. It jes' takes a bit of higher quantum mechanics."

Groot came in. His friend looked at him and said, "Say Groot, ya once told me ya had quantum mechanics in kindergarten?"

The tree-man replied proudly, "I am Groot."

"That too, huh? Then get yer ass over here, I need ya ta work on somethin'."

Gamora looked surprised. Since this trip she had learned that the big tree had more in store than she had given him credit for. She was tempted to ask more questions, but instead she decided to keep her silence and just moved to the doorway to let the two work undisturbedly.

Rocket talked to Groot about signal lines, qbits and encryption algorithms. It sounded exotic, but the _Flora Colossus_ just nodded and made a remark from time to time. Rocket used his comments to create a program on his transparent view screen (the device was fitted with computational power). Finally, he connected a cable with a smart plug into the partially opened tracker. The plug spawned a fine comb of wires that automatically attached themselves to each available connexion point in the little machine. He inserted the other end of the cable into his view/ calculation device.

After a few test runs, he cursed, "D'ast, I get an asymmetric signature. We can't reverse this thing. They have frickin' advanced equipment at the other side."

His friend said, "I am Groot."

"Ya think so? That'll collapse the quantum functions; we only got one shot."

"What is he proposing?" Gamora asked.

"We can force an echo feedback. The echo signal can be used ta calculate a number of spatial regions. That way, we still don' have exact positions, but it's better than nothin'."

With Groot's help, he changed the algorithm. Now Peter was leaning against the doorway too. Gamora kept him informed by whispering what she knew. After a short while, the mammal and tree were confident that their attempt would work. Rocket pushed a button. His screen displayed a number of coordinates. White smoke emerged from the tracker. Finally, it made a plopping sound and died.

"Do you have the data, Rocky?" Peter was curious to know.

"Processin'. Hmm, this ain't so good," he said with frustration in his voice. "I've got about twenty space bubbles with diameters of 10 to 100 light-years. It's still a needle in a haystack. By the time we arrive at one of the enclosed star systems, Drax may already be gone to another place."

"Look at it from the bright side," Peter said, "now they won't see us coming."

"Yeah, but we need ta do more. I suggest we follow his tracks in the village to see if we can come up with somethin'."

"I agree. Let's see how good a bounty hunter you are."

"I'm the best," the furry mammal said. He meant it.

* * *

The team decided that Peter should stay with the ship because his leg hadn't healed yet. The Star-Lord moved the Milano to a spot close to the village. Rocket activated a pattern recognition algorithm for Drax's footsteps on his view screen and handed it to Groot. If the warrior had walked somewhere, his prints would show up in purple on the device.

Gamora, Groot and Rocket entered the village, moved over the broad middle road and stopped at the souk. There, Gamora told where she had last seen Drax. She went into the market place to see if she could find out more from the villagers, while her fellow Guardians picked up and followed Drax's trail. They soon found the location where the warrior previously had left the main road.

The green warrior woman came out of the market building and rejoined them. "Some of the inhabitants saw Drax climb up the hill top and descend to the other side. They say a small craft had landed in the sand, a few hundred metres from the village. They also saw a blue man."

"That's a clue to start with," Rocket concluded. "I've got an idea. If Groot goes around the village and Gam and I go across, we can work faster.

"I am Groot?"

"No, you keep the trackin' viewer."

"What about you, Rock? How can you follow the track without the device?"

"Just watch!" The raccoon bent to the ground to support himself on hands and feet. He walked around sniffing. His nose made a funny, wobbling side-to-side movement. Pretty soon, he had found a scent track and remarked, "Yep, that's Drax's pungent foot smell." He moved along in a fast walking pace.

Gamora knew better by now than to show amazement or ask questions about her unusual crewmates. She just followed the sentient animal through the maze of small passageways between the houses. Groot walked with large steps towards the end of the town and took a turn to the right.

Rocket and Gamora were about to climb the hilltop, when they passed a small white tent house. In front of it, an elderly resident was sitting on a carpet to catch some sunlight. He had a pipe with a long, bent stem between his lips. The man asked her if he could be of any help. Gamora replied, "One of our crew members is missing." She showed a picture, "We try to follow the path he took."

The native said, "I remember the big man passing here before. He went up that hill and then down to the other side. I can show you where."

In the meantime, Rocket had continued walking along the trail. Gamora called to him, "This man can show us where he went. We can take a shortcut."

The busy raccoon stood up. He collected some sticks and rocks to mark the track he found. Then he followed his colleague and the small (well, not as small as Rocket, but smaller than Gamora) indigenous man.

They soon reached the other side of the hill and could see Groot walk from afar. The man pointed to the place where other villagers had seen the craft in the desert. Gamora thanked him for his friendly help. The raccoon and she zigzagged through the maze towards the direction that Drax must have taken.

When they passed the last house and stepped into the sand, they saw Groot approaching from the distance. Rocket shouted, "Do ya have a track already?"

Groot shook his head.

"OK, we have ta pick up the trail again," the raccoon concluded. Gamora continued to the right along the village border, Rocket to the left on all fours to find a scent mark.

"I see footsteps!" Gamora shouted.

The tree and the mammal picked up their pace to meet her.

"I am Groot," the Flora Colossus discovered.

"They match," his friend translated. He took the view screen from Groot. The group followed the footsteps through the desert, heading for the spot where the small spacecraft must have landed. Rocket remarked, "I see two trails. The other person 's probably a normal-sized humanoid. Kree, would be my guess."

Finally the steps ended and they could make out the imprints of a landing gear in the sand. They also found two guns lying close by. Rocket carefully wrapped them up. Then he asked his tree friend, "Can you toss me up? I want to see the landing prints from above."

Groot took Rocket in his large hands, swung his arms and threw the small mammal way up into the air. In flight, the raccoon attained a stable horizontal attitude by rotating his tail. While he rose and fell, he tried to keep the view device as horizontal as possible and focussed it on the landing gear pattern. When he came back to earth, Groot fluently caught him in mid-air and safely put him onto the ground. Rocket hadn't taken his eyes from the screen for even one moment. He blindly trusted his friend to safeguard him.

He studied the footage the view device had produced. Soon, a number of potential crafts appeared on his screen that matched the landing gear marks. "OK, that's all we can do for now, " he concluded, "let's call Peter to pick us up.

Star-Lord landed the ship near their location and the crew went back in. He asked, "What have you got?"

"Two Kree weapons, hopefully with fingerprints. A possible type of the shuttle Drax stepped into. There's a range of cruisers that have small shuttles like that on board."

Peter suggested, "I've already set up a meeting with Rhomann Dey. The Nova Corps wants to share information. He didn't say it in so many words, but they seem to have a few suspect missing person cases themselves."

The Milano left the red desert planet. Peter took the ship in the direction of Xandar while Gamora co-piloted. Rocket was exhausted and took a much earned sleep. The kitchen and the food dispenser were still a mess, but that had to wait.

* * *

Author's note: I hope to be back with the next chapter soon, I'm a bit busy still so my publishing pace is not as fast as I wish for.

By the way, I was inspired for Rocket's wobbling nose by a Youtube movie. Google _Youtube Buster raccoon_ and you'll find a delightful little movie about the sweetest racoon you've ever seen. Watch the end of the movie and you'll know what I mean. :)


	5. Outsider Help

**Outsider Help**

After a long trip from the Small Magellanic Cloud to the Andromeda Galaxy, the Milano arrived on Xandar.

The Guardians felt off-balance after the disappearance of Drax. Rocket didn't feel like putting the food dispenser back together and the pantry still looked more like a disorganised laboratory than a place to consume food. Groot was obsessively trying to refine the outcome of the quantum experiment. Peter and Gamora had a long talk during their shift. Star-Lord had trouble dealing with the new situation. An invisible enemy had torn his group apart. It's easier to fight someone who is standing in front of you, even your most fearsome enemy, than to accept this kind of spooky business.

* * *

Denarian Rhomann Dey received the four Guardians in a small conference room. Peter reported the events of the last days. Their first encounter with the Kree, the trip to the desert planet and everything that followed. The Nova officer listened with full attention.

When Peter finished his report, Dey asked, "Do you have any clues about Drax's current location?"

Rocket took the word, "Not exactly. There are a number of regions in space where he can be an' we have a list of matchin' ships. I was hopin' you guys can help us to narrow down the list."

"We're in the middle of a large investigation ourselves. A number of Nova officers have disappeared mysteriously. There's a pattern. They all visited one peripheral planet or another. Most of them contacted the Corps shortly in advance and seemed to need to leave for a valid reason. However, after the last communication they vanished without a trace."

"That's exactly what happened to Drax!" Peter exclaimed.

There was a moment of silence. The clues needed to sink in. However, no one seemed to have any idea what this all meant.

Peter asked, "So you haven't found a trace of any of the missing persons?"

"Not officially."

"How do you mean, not officially?"

"Well, " the Denarian continued, "we've been working with a guy who claims to be a tracking expert. He has pinpointed a number of locations. However, we haven't been able to verify them."

"What's the problem?"

Dey looked at Peter thoughtfully and answered, "To start with, the locations are very far apart. Some are even outside the visible universe. There are some other complications ... I wish I could be more clear, but this is all I can disclose for now. We were hoping your team can go on a recon mission."

"I don't understand. If you can't, how can we?"

Dey spoke slowly, choosing his words carefully when he said, "Let's just say that we have a lot of ... contradicting information. There's not enough concrete evidence to make an action plan."

Star-Lord involuntarily rubbed his face with one hand. _Why was everything so complicated?_ He concluded, "It sounds better than nothing."

"I'll call in the expert; maybe you have more success with him than we did." Dey pressed a button on the table and asked to send the guy in.

Not much later, someone knocked at the door and a small person came in. He was about one metre tall and looked like an upright walking cat, carrying a small blue backpack. He walked towards an empty place at the table and jumped up in a fluid motion, squatting down on top, ignoring the chair behind him.

The Nova officer announced, "This is Sam. He works for an organisation called the Tangeroon."

Sam took the word, "Tangerine. It's an Earth fruit."

The black and white coloured feline looked across the table to face the Guardians. Rocket looked back with a mix of uncertainty and curiosity. Peter frowned slightly. A cat from Earth? Not one like he ever saw. Groot looked friendly and nodded. He loved small mammals, wherever they came from. Gamora looked ... just like Gamora always looked.

"It's an honour to meet the Guardians of the Galaxy; I heard a lot about you," the cat said. "How can I help?

Peter replied, "One of our crew members, Drax the Destroyer, has gone missing. We want him back. What can you do?"

"When and where did you see him last?"

Peter gave him the coordinates. Sam moved his fingers in the air, as if he was directing sign language to a spot in front of him at the table. From that invisible location, a hologram of Drax popped up; soon followed by a 3D image of Waa'i-Du'in (the planet they last visited).

Peter was tired and not feeling quite himself. _He would have preferred working with known allies and wasn't sure what to expect from this newcomer. It looked like a magic show; hidden display technology with a gesture interface was unusual but not completely unheard of,_ he thought. _But anyhow, the mammal seemed to be working on the problem and as there were not many alternatives, he was willing to see where this would end_.

After a few more seconds of operating his system, the cat reported, "I got something."

The two holographic pictures disappeared to give way to new ones: a small shuttle craft and a larger ship.

"He got on board of this Kree cruiser."

Rocket looked at the images with amazement. He checked the data on the view screen he had brought along and exclaimed, "D'ast! That ship matches one of the options."

Peter interjected, "I don't want to spoil the mood, but how are we going to find this ship?"

Sam replied, "I can track it." He continued to make finger movements and then he said, "Got it! It went to a planet in the Triangulum galaxy."

The previous holograms disappeared. An overview image of the small milky way next to Andromeda popped up. An arrow indicated the position. A star system was highlighted and appeared enlarged. "The third planet is called Indezon 3. It has large oceans and the land is covered with jungle forests. Drax is in a building on this continent." As he spoke, his system projected a life visualisation.

Peter was looking at him with a mixed feeling of unbelief and hope. He faced Dey and said, "That sounds like a pretty specific clue to me. Is the info he has given to you as detailed as this?

The Denarian nodded.

"Then why haven't you come to the rescue of your own men yet?"

"Formally, I have to say that we can't disclose information while the investigation is pending. Between you and me: the matter is more complicated. Our hands are tied. That's why I'm so glad you guys came along. You are free to go to that planet while we have other matters to tend to first."

Gamora was frowning. That is, a person who knew her well may have noticed a slight movement of her eyebrows.

"What's on your mind, Gam?" the leader of the Guardians asked.

The warrior woman addressed Rhomann Dey, "Does the Corps have some kind of political problem?"

"I'm really not at liberty to discuss such matters."

That was all Gamora wanted to know. _The Denarian didn't deny. In diplomatic language, this amounted to a 'Yes'_.

"I am Groot!" the tree-man exclaimed from behind the view screen he brought along.

Rocket translated, "We have a match! Indezon is inside one of the location bubbles we calculated."

Sam looked at the Guardians with a feline smile. The same smile he had when he entered the room. He didn't seem surprised by the outcome but calmly observed the team with his bright, yellow eyes. Then he made a few signs and the holograms disappeared.

The raccoon said to Sam, "Can ya give me the precise data?"

"Sure," said Sam. He gestured a bit more and the requested information appeared on Rocket's screen. Then he hopped off the table and walked over to the raccoon, probably to see if he could be of any help.

Dey rose from his chair, asking, "I presume you have enough data to work with?"

Peter nodded, while the rest of the team gathered around Rocket's view screen. Shortly before the officer left the room, he caught Quill's look and subtly signalled with his head to follow.

Peter announced, "Guys, I'll leave you for a few minutes, I'll be right back, OK?"

Rocket was already setting up a flight plan. The leader of the Guardians left the room and followed the Nova officer.

* * *

Peter accompanied Rhomann Dey through the building. They entered Dey's office, Quill closed the door and both sat down.

He looked at Peter inquisitively and noticed how he had his full attention. With some hesitation, he brought out, "Look, we have a delicate situation here. This conversation isn't taking place. Are we clear about that? If any of my colleagues finds out that I have been chatting with an outsider, I'm in big trouble."

Star-Lord assured him, "You can trust me. I respect your position. This doesn't leave the room."

"You can't tell anything to them either!" he said with a head gesture. He meant the rest of the Guardians.

"I understand."

Dey shifted around on his chair uneasily and said, "OK, here goes nothing. I suspect that we have a mole in our organisation."

Peter raised his eyebrows and remarked, "That's quite a suspicion. Why do you think that?"

"Twelve of our men and women disappeared. Some of them I've know for years. First rule in a missing persons case is to act swiftly. The longer you wait, the slimmer the chance of success." Dey took a breath and continued with frustration in his voice, "The information of the tracking guy, Sam, is more concrete than anything else we have. But against all common policies, our Centurions keep postponing a rescue mission! If it was up to me, we would have taken a chance. But instead, there's an endless debate about the reliability of his sources. They wanted him to disclose his technology, but he refused."

"I've never seen Nova Prime being so indecisive, it freaks me out. It's like someone is deliberately creating confusion. They argue that such a precise and powerful tracking system is just too good to be true. And that going on a rescue mission outside the visible universe is beyond our budget. As if our lives do not matter!" He slammed his fist on his desk. After a moment to calm down, he almost pleaded, "That's why I'm so glad that the cat tracked Drax to the Triangulum system. It's practically around the corner. I really hope you can get him back. If we have solid proof, we can kill this damned bureaucracy!"

Peter looked at him with resolve in his eyes and said, "To me, this is a clear shot case. We didn't have jack and now we got something. Did you see how your tracker's information matched that of Rocket and Groot? You can depend on the two of them, anytime! We'll find out soon enough if this is a wild goose chase or not."

"That's what I like to hear," Dey responded. "I know I can count on you."

Peter stood up and shook his hand warmly. The officer said, "I hope you have success. If you do, please return as quickly as you can."

"I will," Peter replied.

Dey added, "But please be careful with this info. As I told you, I'm pretty sure we have an internal problem. This can't get out. It would damage the reputation of the Corps. We need to solve it ourselves."

"Trust me. I won't say a word, not to anybody. I know what's at stake."

Peter left the office room and went back to see his companions. There was no time to lose.


	6. Tracks in Space

Notes

This chapter runs in parallel to the trip Peter is making to Dey's office and the conversation they have in chapter 5. Both sequences match in real-time length, I used a clock to check it.

 _Thanks for reading! This chapter and the last one introduce some new characters and set the plot for the coming chapters. In the next two or three chapters a lot is going to happen. Fun stuff mixed with serious predicaments!_

 _If you like this story, feel wellcome to place a review. I really appreciate all the feedback, short and long. Don't be shy!_

 _If you want me to read a story of yours and you want more reviews too, I'd be glad to exchange reviews! It doesn't even need to be a GotG story._

* * *

 **Tracks in Space**

Meanwhile in the conference room, Rocket was working on a mission plan. Sam showed a hologram of the building Drax was supposed to be in. It consisted of a large construction platform with windowless cubes stacked on top of it. Each cube measured about six metres. One layer of cubes covered three quarters of the platform; two cubes on top formed a small second layer. It looked like a coarse pyramid.

The raccoon asked, "Sam, what can ya tell me about the buildin'?"

"What do you want to know?"

"How ta get in an' out, fer starters."

Sam gestured a few commands. "The cubes are made of a tough steel alloy. Each cube contains two or three large doors; most of them connect to neighbouring cubes; a few open up to the outside. The doors close seamlessly. They are moved by a force field."

Rocket looked at Gamora and suggested, "We can start by torching a hole in it."

Sam added, "Inside, the doors joining adjacent cubes are open. A pathway through these openings goes round and then further to the inside. But each cube can seal itself off independently."

"Torch a lot of holes then"

"Can you see who's inside?" Gamora asked.

Sam replied, "Only schematically ... Got it, there are fifteen people, not counting Drax. See, your missing Guardian is the green dot and the other guys are the red dots."

"What kind of weapons do they have?" Rocket wanted to know.

"My system shows this type," he said and pointed to a hologram of an assault rifle.

"That can't be right, that's a Skrull weapon."

"Let me check. No, it's correct. The guards are all Skrulls."

Gamora and Rocket looked puzzled. The warrior woman said, "Kree and Skrull are mortal enemies. They don't work together."

Sam was working his interface to double check the information. He reproduced footage of the Kree ship landing on the planet, Drax getting off and walking straight to the metal building. He ascended a staircase onto the platform. When he approached one of the cubes, two large rectangles appeared on the outside that slid apart like sliding doors. He went in and the door shapes merged seamlessly with the outer hull of the building again. "I can't see any Skrulls directly, but my system says with 100% confidence that there are fifteen inside."

"OK, let's presume that's true," Rocket said, "then we have ta get in, burn holes and disable fifteen guys armed with photon guns. Maybe we should just blow up half the place."

Gamora asked, "How do you keep Drax safe?"

"He's a tough guy."

Sam looked up and said, "I just ran another query. A visual detection grid covers the outside. They can see you coming from a great distance in every direction. Inside, there are seismic and heat detection units. Apparently, they are prepared for incursions of this type. Each part of the internal corridors is watched by at least two guards simultaneously."

"That's a bummer," Rocket said in frustration, "do you have anythin' we can use?"

"What would you suggest?"

"Like somethin' that helps us gettin' this job done!" the raccoon exclaimed impatiently.

"This is a query system. You need to formulate precisely."

Rocket let out a soft growl. "I'll come up with somethin' during the trip."

For a moment it was silent. Sam deactivated his images, leapt onto a table and sat down on the side.

Peter was still somewhere else in the building. Everyone was silent and the atmosphere was a bit gloomy. Gamora decided that making conversation would be a good use of the time and may improve the mood. She asked, "How did you get to work for the Nova Corps, Sam?"

"I'm an external contractor. The Tangerine performs rescue operations. Since about half a year we have an office on Knowhere. We introduced ourselves to the various delegations. Three days ago the Nova Corps contacted us for help."

"What kind of rescue operations?"

"Mostly small stuff, like missing persons. We also provide medical services. We can help in the aftermath of a local disaster."

"A medic?" Rocket said with dismay, "Are you a doctor?"

"Where I come from, we call it 'health care practitioner'."

"Great. A cat an' a doctor. Two things I hate."

"You hate cats?" Sam asked in surprise, "Why?"

"I just hate them."

"I don't hate raccoons," Sam said with a smile on his face, "although some say that cats and raccoons are natural enemies." He mentioned it as an amusing fact, not something he actually worried about.

"That must be it."

Gamora, who knew her moody shipmate well enough, intervened in the discussion by asking, "How big is your crew?

"About a hundred. But most of my colleagues do other stuff, like research and engineering. We got about twenty rescue and health care operators."

"Do you have armed forces?"

"We don't use offensive weapons. Basically, the Tangerine is a civil operation. But we do have state of the art non-lethal defence systems to withstand attacks if needed.

"Then you don't have experience with armed missions?"

"We have been attached to combat groups a couple of times."

"Did that work out?"

"If the rules of engagement are clear at forehand, yes. We save lives, we don't kill if it can be avoided."

Rocket muttered, "Yeah, but sometimes ya have ta kill a life to save a life."

"Save two."

"What?"

"That's one of our rules: killing a life is only justified if it prevents the death of more than one sentient and there is absolutely no alternative. We are restrained by medical and humane ethical codes."

"Not everybody here will agree with ya. I don't know where ye're from, but this is a tough galaxy."

"Our knowledge isn't absolute; I don't mind discussing principles of ethics."

"Don't count me in," Rocket said peevishly.

Finally, Groot wanted to know, "I am Groot?"

"No I'm not from Halfworld," Sam replied.

Gamora and Rocket both said in surprise,

"Can you understand Groot?"

"I don't, but my translator does."

The warrior woman and the raccoon looked at each other while a number of thoughts crossed their minds.

"Do you want me to see if I can upgrade your translators?" the cat asked.

Gamora said, "That would come in handy."

Groot and Rocket exchanged a look. They had their own private conversations and the raccoon wasn't sure if he wanted to give up that privilege. "There's no haste," he said.

Rocket continued, "Now that ya mention it, I wondered if ye're a Halfworlder too. Did we meet before? I can't remember ever having seen ya."

"My home world is an Earth-like planet in a distant galaxy."

"Were you ... genetically engineered?"

"No, I have parents. But my ancestors have been created that way, thousands of years ago."

"So, you're like a human pet then?" Rocket snickered.

"Goodness, no! Besides, there are no humanoids on my home world."

At that moment Peter came in, "Guys, we're leaving now."

They all stood up and headed for the exit. Sam walked towards Peter and asked him, "May I join you on your mission to find Drax?"

Rocket taunted, "No you can't. We have a no-cat policy on board."

"Don't mind Rocket," Peter interjected, "I was thinking about asking you to come with us. You may be of use during this mission."

"OK then," Sam said contently and stuck out his tongue to the raccoon. He cheerfully teased, "Don't worry; you and me are going to be b-e-e-e-st buddies."

"Don't bet on it. And there ain't much room on the ship either."

"I don't need much space."

They arrived at the Space Port and entered the Milano. Peter and Rocket went straight into the cockpit. Sam followed them. He was curious and wanted to get to know the ship. They lifted off soon after.

Sam explored the ship. He sniffed at the walls, the floors and all the junk that lay about.

Rocket, who was co-piloting, briefly turned around and looked annoyed, barking "Hey, don't touch anything!"

"Not without gloves," he riposted. "Boy, this ship is messy. Don't worry, I'm just sniffin'"

The Raccoon growled, "As long as you don't put yer nose where it doesn't belong."

He set course for the Triangulum galaxy and fired the FTL drive.


	7. Treats

**Treats**

* * *

 **Notes:** This is the last chapter where the different personalities get to know each other better. It was a lot of fun to write, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. In the next chapter, the real action starts.

 _If you read it and you like it and/ or if you want to make a remark, please leave a review! I'm very happy with all the feedback you give! It makes me confident that I'm heading in the right direction (or should make a few changes, that's all part of a writer's job)._

* * *

Peter took over the helm and Gamora co-piloted. Rocket went to the pantry and sat down at the table to plan the mission. He studied the schematics Sam had given him.

Meanwhile, the cat was done sniffing and had found the food storage. He browsed through all the vegetables and then noticed the still unrepaired food dispenser. He said to Rocket, "Seems your food synthesiser needs some repair."

Rocket looked up from his study and replied, "I needed some parts. I haven't come around to fix it yet."

"Hmm, that's a bit of an inconvenience. I need a high protein diet."

"That's not my problem. Ya shoulda thought about that before ya came on board."

"Well, thank you for being so considerate." He looked at the machine and had a thought, "Hey, I know a guy who is crazy about classic food machines like that. I can give him a call so he can help fix it."

"I'm not gonna help with that. We're on a mission, it can wait."

"Would you mind if I fix this thing with his help?"

"Sure, knock yourself out."

Sam did some gesturing and a holographic scene appeared. It showed an upright standing fox in an old-fashioned overall who seemed to be working on some machinery. The image of the fox was about twenty cm high. Sam said to the guy, "Hi Muzzo, are you busy?"

The fox in the image stopped what he was doing and replied, "Hi Sam. Well, I'm working on this ... never mind. Can I help you?"

"Yeah, I'm on board of a ship and they have a broken food processor. Have a look at this." He moved his fingers, seemingly grabbing things in the air. An image of the dispenser appeared in the hologram and the fox looked at it.

"Cool," he enthused, "I haven't seen one of those in a long time. Looks like a 3D food printer."

"I thought you may like it. Can you fix it?"

"Yeah, easy peasy. Oh, I see what's wrong. The coils have been taken out and ... apparently modified into something. I can show you how to change them back."

"Are you sure you have time for it?

"No problem."

"By the way," Sam said, "This is Rocket, Rocket this is Muzzo."

The raccoon waved his hand absent-mindedly while Muzzo said, "Hi there, Rocket. Nice to meet you."

Rocket mumbled back, "You too."

"He's planning the mission," Sam excused him.

The hologram disappeared. After a while, it reappeared and the fox said, "I got instructions for you. But I got another idea. That thing is totally outdated. What if we upgrade it a bit?"

"Sounds nice. What do you have in mind?"

"This version can only heat food. I can add a cooling device. Furthermore, the auto-clean unit must leave a terrible taste, it uses a chemical detergent. If I add a steam cleaner, it would make the food taste a lot better."

"Won't that use a lot of water?"

"I'll build in a recycler."

"Well, let me ask. Rocket?"

"Yeah, what now?"

"Can we upgrade the dispenser?"

"Do with it whatever ya want. Make it sing and dance for all I care. Can't ya see I'm busy with urgent things?" the annoyed raccoon barked.

Sam put up his thumb and said, "Sounds like a 'yes' to me. Muz, do you have the parts and the instructions ready?"

"Give me half an hour."

The hologram went off again.

Sam started to prepare the repairs. He disassembled the device that Rocket had made to scan metal and cleaned it. After he was done, he squatted on the floor and started to clean himself by licking his paws and his fur.

Gamora came in. She opened a closet, took out an apple-like fruit and bit in it. Then she sat down at the table where Rocket was working. The raccoon looked stressed. After a while, he said, "What?"

"I'm just taking a break," the lady said. "How do you come along?"

"We'll get there. I figure ya get in with a thermal lance. Pete an' I will give you suppressive fire. Groot can't go in 'coz of the heat. We need ta get him close to the compound, so he can beat up the Skrulls who come out." He sighed, "If they come out at all. They'll probably stay in ta have more of a fightin' chance. The corridors and narrow openings are easy to defend. More likely, they'll just close the cubes, in which case we have ta cut through them all."

"That will take a while. I hope they don't have teleportation."

"That would invalidate the whole plan. Let's just assume they don't have one." He pondered for a short while and then addressed the cat, "Sam, can ya see if they have a teleport?"

The cat stopped his cleaning routine and moved his fingers. After a number of movements, he confirmed, "Yes, they have one. In the central cube, the one Drax is guarding."

"Damn," Rocket called out in frustration. "Damn, damn, damn! This is fucking impossible." Then he looked at Sam in anger and said with a raised, angry voice, "Couldn't ya have told me before?"

Sam frowned. He replied, "Hey, my system is query based. If you don't ask the right questions, it doesn't come up with the right answers. Besides, why are you angry at me? I'm only here to help, you know?"

The raccoon growled and pulled at his own cheek fur. He grumbled, "Yer system doesn't do a lot of good. Now I have to start all over again."

Gamora said, soothingly, "It's nobody's fault, Rock. You've cracked tougher nuts."

Sam suggested, "Maybe the situation calls for a ruse."

Rocket sneered, "Who asked you?"

The cat suddenly hissed angrily, "Do you want my help or not? I resent your unfriendliness. I didn't do anything wrong to you!"

Rocket looked at him and muttered, "'m sorry, OK?"

Sam's tail swished nervously while he angrily continued licking his paw.

Gamora looked at him. Then she had an idea, "If Sam approached the base, they'd probably think he's just an animal."

Sam looked up. He let the idea sink in. His tail stopped moving except for the tip. He said with a faint smile, "That sounds like an idea."

Rocket interjected, "Yes, but how's he gonna do that on his own?"

Gamora looked at him, grinning subtly. Rocket moved back slightly and said, "Oh no, oh no no no. I know what ye're thinkin'. No way."

Sam looked at Rocket, "I think it's a good plan. It may work."

Rocket scowled at the cat. The discussion raised his hackles. He wanted to snap something at Sam. However, after he had made his apologies, he was more aware that _his anger really was about getting Drax home safely and the difficulty to achieve that_.

 _On a deeper level, he had been feeling all this time how his Guardian family had been ripped apart and how he felt powerless. Feeling helpless was something he found almost unbearable; it made him feel on edge._

He took a deep breath and told himself, _I need to control my anger_. A thing he always told himself after he had exploded or was about to explode. He explained slowly and with determination, "I don't care how ya feel about impersonatin' an animal, but for me it's a no go. It just doesn't fly for me."

Sam said, "Really? For me, it's no problem. I'm a cat and I like being a cat. I think it would be cool."

Rocket continued, "Look, I don't see how this plan can work. Raccoons - ," he said and swallowed, " - and cats are probably not even indigenous to the planet. Besides, if two animals of different species were workin' together, it would raise their suspicion. They ain't that stupid"

Sam listened to his remark and smiled even deeper.

"What?" Rocket exclaimed.

"Oh, I know something, it's just beautiful. You hate me, right?"

"What if?"

"No, think about it, raccoons and cats are natural enemies."

"So?"

"Why not make the best use of your misplaced instincts? Why not approach the base while we're fighting?"

"How do ya mean?"

"Picture this: I'm a medium sized predator. I caught a big prey. You're a thievish raccoon, wanting to steal my catch. I'm trying to defend it. Meanwhile I see the construction in the middle of the jungle. I hoist my prey up to be able to defend it better. You follow me. Together, we make a big mess. That would catch their attention."

Gamora nodded almost unnoticeably. Rocket was baffled. _It was a good plan._ But the Raccoon wasn't ready to give up his resistance. It wasn't his plan and he disliked it in many ways, so he criticised, "It's a stupid plan! How can we protect ourselves against gunfire if we're ... naked? And besides, I have ... my ...," he hesitated and stuttered, took a short breath and then continued, "no, no and no! I have my dignity, ya know?"

Gamora glanced at him with a look that conveyed wisdom, as only she could look. She tried to convince him, "Of course you don't have to do something that you find shameful. It's only about saving Drax."

"I know, ya don't have ta be cynical," Rocket exclaimed with a mix of annoyance and despair in his voice. He struggled to find a way out of this distressful proposal and protested, "Look, if that cat doesn't mind walkin' around naked like a freakin' animal, it's his choice. I'm just not comfortable with it."

"I'm not naked," the cat said.

Gamora and Rocket looked at him. Sam stood up and pulled at something at his side. It seemed like he pulled a patch of his fur loose, but underneath he had more fur. "I'm wearing furry short pants," he simply said.

Now they realised that he was wearing furry shorts in exactly the same colours as his own fur, matching the white of his belly/ chest area and the black of the rest of his body (not entirely that is, his muzzle, hands and feet were white too).

"I got big balls, you know. Didn't any of you wonder why you didn't see them?"

Rocket tried to make a joke, "Well, I thought ya were ..."

"Oh no, don't you say it!" Sam called out. "That's offensive to say to a cat! We're a proud species! I'm fertile."

"I bet you are," Gamora said. "OK, we got a little sidetracked here."

"Not at all," the cat claimed. He took off his blue backpack and gestured a series of instructions. Then he pulled out a pair of shorts that roughly matched Rocket's fur colour. "Tada!"

The raccoon looked estranged, "What ... have ya been keepin' that in yer backpack all the time?"

"Oh, the knapsack," Sam said and chuckled. "No, it contains a miniportal connected to a production facility. I can pull out stuff I program."

Rocket remarked, "Ye're full of surprises, ain't ya?"

"You haven't seen half of it," he continued. "That brings me to the next issue. A fake prey and protection against photon blasts. I can have some of the Tangerine staff make a fake prey and design suits that contain some protection."

"A suit?" Rocket asked.

"Well, a furry suit that covers most of your body. We can weave in a shielding device that protects against high energy photons."

"So how big would that suit be?"

"I don't know; I guess only your feet, hands and head would stick out. But with the right tech, the parts that stick out can be protected to some degree. Don't you have technology like that?"

"Yeah, sure," the raccoon replied. _He realised that his question had sounded a bit silly. All the time, he was worried a lot that he had to show his naked backside. Running around in the nude wouldn't even be such a problem for him, but he was very sensitive about the implants in his back. He didn't like it when people saw them. Now that he knew the suit would cover them up, he gave up his resistance. It was a good plan. This was the best shot they had at getting Drax out unharmed._

"I'll get to it then," Sam suggested.

Rocket nodded. Gamora walked back to the cockpit to inform Peter. Sam used his communication device again. This time a female bunny appeared. She was dressed in blue trousers and a white shirt with a small collar. She was white all over except for the beautiful black tips on her long ears.

"Hi Trix."

"Hi Sam," she said with enthusiasm. "How are you doing?"

"Fine, really fine. I'm on a mission."

"How exciting!"

"Hey, I need your help with something, can you spare some time?"

"Of course. We can always make time." She winked.

Sam chuckled, "We sure can." Then he explained about the suits he wanted, one for himself and one for Rocket. He transmitted data to her and after a bit of chitchatting with the cute bunny, he closed the connexion.

Directly after, a new hologram appeared with the fox in the overall. "I got the specs," he said.

"Great! Did you enjoy making the device?"

"You know me; I love cooking and making food machines. Nothing gives pleasure like good food."

"I can think of one other gratification," Sam joked. The fox giggled and Sam grinned.

"OK," Sam said, "let's see what you have for me." The cat pulled one part after the other out of his backpack.

Rocket watched him attentively. _The bag actually did contain a miniportal._ _He was distrustful towards the cat and he never knew if the guy was making things up or if he was for real. Even the location and the building they were heading for was something imaginary for him until he could see it with his own eyes. However, this repair operation showed that the Tangerine residents had useful skills that actually worked._

After he had pulled out all the gear, Sam asked the fox to stay online in case he got stuck. The cat started to work with the machine, but didn't seem to have a natural talent for it.

Rocket watched the two and stepped down from his chair after a while. He walked towards Sam hesitantly and asked, "Why dontcha let me take over? I hafta know how ya changed the machine in case I hafta make repairs."

Sam handed it over to the raccoon with some relieve. Rocket didn't need much instructions from the fox to figure out how to assemble the device. After fifteen minutes, it was done. Muzzo told Rocket how the new interface worked and demonstrated how he could make a specific selection on the integrated view screen. The machine buzzed and rumbled. The upper part of the automaton contained a compartment with a transparent door, where an inverted cone with something white on it appeared. The modified device even had a few short steps built in at the lower front side, so Rocket could climb up to take the food out. Before, he had to stretch or step on a chair. He took the cone, sniffed and licked it. "It's cold," he said to the fox.

"That's ice-cream. Don't they have that where you're from?"

Rocket didn't answer. He continued to lick and decided that he liked it. Sam looked at the fox in the hologram and put his thumb up. He complimented his colleague, "Nice job, Muz! You're the best!"

"Now I guess the only thing you have to do is move it to the kitchen."

"This is the kitchen," Sam replied.

"Sacre blue!" The fox exclaimed.

"I know. It's a small ship."

"No, I mean, I thought this was the repair shop."

"I guess some tidying up wouldn't hurt. Anyway, the crew probably has other things on their minds. You've been a great help. Love you!"

"Love you," the fox said and disappeared.

Meanwhile Rocket had walked into the cockpit to check how long the journey would take. Some of the molten cream had run over his hands, making them sticky. He licked one hand, while the treat continued to mess up the other one.

Peter looked at him in surprise. "Is that ... ice-cream?" he asked. "Where did you get that?"


	8. Indezon 3

**Indezon 3**

Comment:

Hi readers,

It's been a while. Christmas, New Year and all. Happy New Year by the way! I hope the next chapters will come in a more regular interval.

If you want to write a (small) review: please do. I'm really glad with the feedback I got! It surely inspires me to keep writing.

* * *

Rocket, Groot and Sam where sitting in the back of the Milano. Peter flew the ship and Gamora was co-piloting.

The ingenious raccoon worked on a small camouflaged hand weapon that Sam and he could wear without enemies seeing it. When it was done, Rocket tested it on a target disc. The pressure gun hardly made any sound and left needle-thin holes in the disc.

"That's a bit smaller than your other gun," Sam teased.

"Small, but deadly," Rocket replied proudly.

"How is it deadly?" Sam wanted to know.

"It's a poison gun."

Sam frowned and though about what he was going to say next. "Do we need to kill the Skrull?"

"Hey, this is how we do it. These are enemy forces; they can kill us so we kill them first."

"Why not just sedate any opposition forces?"

"Bad idea. What if they wake up? You can't keep shootin' the same guys, you need ta take them out for good."

"I don't know, what if you can sedate them for a time long enough to succeed with the mission? Like one or two hours?"

"Why do ya meddle with things like that? Putting yer nose in it again? We got yer plan in place, now ya have ta leave the logistics to me. That's my job!" He punched himself on the chest with a fist, a snarl on his muzzle.

Sam was not impressed and kept on, "It's not my plan, it's our plan. I don't take the credits for it. Secondly, I respect your authority, I'm just giving input. Thirdly, I meddle with things because I have to act according to my rules. I can't kill people if there's an alternative."

"Well, ya don't get an alternative."

"Then I just go in without a gun."

"Are ya crazy? The plan requires two men with a weapon."

"Do I have a say in it or not?"

"Ya flarkin' stinkin' ...," Rocket swore, adding a lot more terms, ending with "... nosy cat."

The cat tried to keep his cool. Words don't hurt, he told himself. He continued, "What if Drax doesn't want to come with us?"

"What are ya blabberin' about, of coz he comes with us."

"Yes, but he seemed to be manipulated. What if you can't convince him? You can't shoot him."

"Then we have to wait for Groot and Gam to come in, they will drag him out."

"If you sedate him, there is less risk."

Rocket was contemplating this information. It made sense.

Groot, who had been following the conversation, said, "I am Groot."

"Are ya on his side now? I'll tell ya what we do: you fill yers with sedative and I load mine with toxin. Keeps us both happy."

"What if you need to shoot Drax?"

"He has self-healing powers, he'll survive."

"What kind of poison are you using?"

"Look fer yerself, it's a potent neurotoxin."

"I see. I know this agent, it causes convulsions. I got a sedative that works very smoothly; it's compatible with Skrull physiology. If a guy is hit, he will think he's been stung by a mosquito and will slowly slide down into a deep sleep. Very discrete."

"No, that ain't no good idea! Look, there's a teleport. What if a hundred Skrulls come out? You can't tranq 'em all, ya need ta kill 'em."

"You can't fire more rounds with poison than with sedative during the same time interval, it makes no difference. There can never be so many Skrulls that you need hours to shoot them all. The building is too small for that."

Rocket clenched his teeth. He hated this know-it-all more and more. Then he took a breath. He had to be rational about this, "So yer suggestin' we both take a tranq gun. I don't feel comfortable with that. Ya just may get into a situation where ya have ta kill a guy, ya don't know in advance. If it comes to it, ya need the tools to do so."

The big tree-man suggested, "I am Groot."

"Exchangeable cartridges, eh? Hmm." He thought some more about it and then said, "OK, but just because Groot says so. I need some time to readjust the guns."

"I think that's a good solution," Sam remarked. "I'll produce a bottle of the sedative."

"OK, ya do that, ya d'ast Skrull hugger."

"I don't like Skrulls any more than you do. But they happen to be sentients, you know."

"Jes' wait till yer smell their breath. Then ya wan' ta kill 'm fer sure."

"Death penalty for poor dental hygiene? That's a bit strong."

"I was jokin', ya fool."

"I was too."

Rocket got back to work on the mini-guns. Meanwhile, Beatrix, the white rabbit, had produced the suits and Muzzo had fitted them with shielding. Beatrix added small pockets to stick the guns and the cartridges in. Then the suits were beamed into Sam's backpack. In addition, another item was sent over.

Sam put on his suit and exclaimed, "Look at this cool prey she made!" It looked like a replica of a small deer. Sam clenched it between his fangs and moved around swiftly through the back of the ship. He looked like a genuine predator that had made a kill.

"Now at least ya look like a decent killer," Rocket said with a cynical voice.

Sam stood up and tugged at the replica while he held it in his mouth. Reddish goo dripped out. Groot looked at it with displeasure. Sam took the thing out of his muzzle and dropped it on the floor. "If you pull it a little, this muck will flow out. It's full of it. We can totally mess up their doorsteps." He grinned with childish pleasure.

"Yeah, that's nice," Rocket added, "don't spill it here. Ya know how tidy Star-Lord is."

After a while, the raccoon finished his gun design. Sam handed him a bottle with a green fluid. Rocket filled two cartridges with the sedative and two with black poison. He fitted the green ones to the guns and then gave the gun and a toxic capsule to Sam.

"I hope ya will use the black stuff when ya need ta, don't go pacifist on me."

"Of course. If there's a compelling reason, I'll use it. I'm not a pacifist! But I'm not a murderer either."

The ring-tail muttered something. Then he took the raccoon suit and changed into it. Making sure Sam couldn't see his backside while he did. He stuck the gun and the cartridge into the small pockets and ran around on all fours to see if they wouldn't drop out. The design was good; so far, the plan seemed to work.

Sam walked on all fours too, grabbing the prey with his teeth and darting through the pantry. Then he sped up the stairs, to the front of the ship. Peter was focussing on the approach to the planet, while Gamora turned her head and looked amused at the wild cat entering the cabin. Soon after, a wild raccoon came along. The warrior woman tapped on Peter's shoulder and pointed with her head towards the newly arrived animals. Star-Lord glanced back and chuckled, "Lookin' great, Rocky! You could have fooled me."

Gamora laughed. Rocket growled.

Peter joked, "Amazing sound effects too!"

All of a sudden, Rocket shouted angrily, "Stop laughin' ya flarkin' idiots! Ya think this is funny? It's a freakin' circus act, fer cryin' out loud!" He stomped down the stairs angrily. Sam saw him go and was taken aback. He looked at Gamora with an uncertain expression. Gamora stepped out of her stool and went down the stairs. Rocket marched towards Groot on two feet and pointed a finger at him, "Don't you dare laugh at me too!"

Groot had a friendly face while he watched him come in, but his friend's mood swing startled him. Rocket sat at the table and sulked. Gamora walked in and sat down next to him without saying anything.

After a while she said, "Look, we're really sorry. We didn't mean to insult you. You just look so convincing in the costume. It's all good fun."

Rocket looked at her but said nothing. Gamora gently petted his paw. Groot put a hand around his shoulder.

Sam slowly climbed down the stairs. He tried to be as quiet as possible. _He felt sorry for the raccoon. It had become clear to him that the sentient animal had a few issues and that his crewmates took good care of him. He felt sorry that he caused things to move in a direction that was painful to his fellow mammal. Yet, he couldn't figure out how he could have done things differently. These were all professionals, like him. They had to do what's best for a mission. Sometimes that meant you have to sacrifice something. He wasn't happy at all that most sacrifices seemed to come at Rocket's expense._

He slowly walked towards the table, where the three Guardians were sitting silently, morally supporting their raccoon friend without words. Sam said, hesitantly, "If it means anything, I'm sorry too."

The raccoon looked up and stared at him. "Sorry for what?"

"I don't know exactly what is going on, but I want to show more consideration for you. Did I hurt your feelings?"

Rocket stopped staring. He faced the table and glanced at his two friends. Then he looked at Sam again and said, "It's not yer problem, really." He looked at the table and sighed. Then he slowly rubbed his face. "I'll get over it."

Gamora went back to the cockpit to assist Peter in landing the Milano. Sam joined Rocket and Groot at the table. They were silent for the rest of the trip. Emptying their minds and focussing on what was to come. No more words were needed.

* * *

When the Milano hovered at great distance over the location to find a suitable landing site, Peter saw a jungle with a large artificial clearing. All life had been burned away within a diameter of two hundred metres. Patches of grass had grown back on the blackened soil. In the middle was a platform on top of a scaffold. The floor, about twenty-five metres in both directions, was covered for three quarters by a shiny metallic building. Broad steps led from the ground to the uncovered part of the stage. On the roof of the metal construction, two connected cubes were placed in the middle. One of the cubes carried a large metal disc, supported by a short pole; The disc faced the building like an umbrella.

Twenty minutes later, a medium size black and white coloured predator peeked from behind a tree into the open area. In his muzzle a freshly caught hoofed animal. He nervously glanced back into the growth. Then he made a decision and took a fast sprint towards the platform.

Behind the same tree, another animal was lurking. It was about equal in size and had greyish fur. It sniffed around and seemed to follow a trail of blood. Meanwhile, the predator halted near the platform. He dropped his prey and looked around to see if the area was safe. He smelled at the scaffolding. Then he glimpsed the other animal leaving the woods; sniffing, taking a sprint, smelling again. The black and white predator didn't like it. He swiftly grabbed his catch and ran up the stairs, onto the platform.

There it hastily began to tear his prey apart. Blood and giblets were spilled all over.

His competitor had tracked him and cautiously climbed up the stairs. The black and white animal growled and hissed fiercely, but the grey one slowly pursued his upward motion, meandering from one side of the steps to the other while looking casual and innocent.

In response, the black and white creature moved his half-gutted prey to the other side of the stage. The grey animal bit in one of the organs that had dropped out of the dead animal. He chewed it, holding it with his paws. Distasteful substances leaked out. He dropped the meat and smeared his hands off on the metal wall. Then he ambled in the direction of his competitor, who held the rest of the prey.

The predator felt menaced by the renewed approach of his competition. He dropped his prey, made a few steps towards the other guy, hissed and threatened to attack by making a short sprint, catching himself and flailing his paws with fully extended nails. While he charged, the grey animal suddenly sped around him, snatched the kill and run back to the stairs. The other animal was furious and ran after him, hitting his hind legs with his paws to make him stumble. Finally, the skirmish turned into a tug war. Both animals buried their teeth in one end of the catch and tried to rip it out of the other's mouth. Goo gushed out of the dead thing into all directions, painting the platform and the walls over in red and brown colours.

Two metal doors slid open and a large, green soldier stepped out with an annoyed look on his face. The grey animal seemed to be scared and let go of the prey. He fled towards the opening in the wall, trying to hide behind the soldier. The latter took out his gun and pointed it at the other predator who growled and wasn't about to let anyone steal his prey.

Suddenly the grey animal stood up, grabbed a small gun out of his fur and shot the soldier in the back. The man didn't notice. He fired at the black and white predator but missed because the creature jumped sideways when he pressed the trigger. The animal firmly grabbed his prey and darted towards his grey competitor, who had already dashed into the building. The soldier was about to fire a second shot, but fell backwards and hit the deck. He had trouble getting up again.

The mammal with the prey sprinted through the hallway, passing the grey one. From the dark, a second green man appeared. The black and white predator growled fiercely. The soldier grabbed his weapon. He didn't pay attention to the grey animal, who shot him in the neck. After a few seconds, the man stretched his arm towards the wall to catch himself from collapsing. He slid along the wall onto the floor and rested there motionlessly.

Three more corridors followed. The black and white predator caught the attention of the guards; the grey animal unexpectedly shot them down. No alarm was sounded.

Finally, around the fourth corner, the grey animal went up on two feet and walked towards a huge tattooed man who guarded one of the middle cubes of the building.

The big man responded to the intrusion of the small creature by taking one of his knifes out of its sheath. He held it in his right fist, blade facing down, and slowly approached the animal. The mammal didn't flinch and kept walking towards the man. The man squeezed his eyes and said with much surprise, "Rocket?"


	9. Lose Some, Win Some

**Lose Some, Win Some**

Finally, a new chapter. It took me a while due to personal circumstances. I hope I'll manage to speed up the pace a bit in the future. Thank you, readers, for your patience!

* * *

Rocket barked, "Yeah, it's me, you flarkin' idiot. What the fuck are you doin' here?"

Drax replied, "I may ask you the same question."

"Whaddya think? We're takin' ya out of here."

"I'm not leaving this place."

"Would ya mind tellin' me what's goin' on, Drax, 'coz we lost track of ya. In more than one way."

"This is a crucial mission. It supersedes everything. There is no time to explain. They will sound the alarm and catch you. Leave, while you can!"

"Supersedes what? Yer friends? We're yer mission, Drax, we are!" Rocket said and pointed to himself with an angry finger. "Stop this nonsense. Ye're part of us, ya come with us!"

"No, I will not. Now leave!"

Rocket had enough of this. He swung his gun forward to tranquilise the rogue Guardian, but underestimated his lightning fast reflexes. Before he could squeeze the trigger, the green man had already launched his knife, piercing the right arm of Rocket and pinning him to the wall behind him. The raccoon dropped his gun and screamed in pain. Drax approached him, probably to retrieve his knife, when he felt a few stings in the back of his neck. He turned around instantly and faced a cat-like creature, about the same size as Rocket. "What is that?" he exclaimed.

"I'm Sam, I'm here with Rocket," the cat said cheerfully.

The green man was about to say something, but his legs collapsed and his torso fell to the ground.

Rocket clenched his teeth and wiggled the knife to get it loose. Sam came to his help. He grabbed the grip of the knife and helped moving it back and forth, until they were able to pull it out of the wall and out of the raccoon's arm. It hardly bled.

Sam gesticulated. A small, rectangular device appeared, floating above the pierced arm. The cat gave a series of finger commands.

"What are ya doin'?" Rocket whispered.

"Healing your wound," Sam replied quietly. "Don't move."

After a few seconds, the device disappeared. Rocket's arm was undamaged again, except for a slim trail of blood.

"Neat," Rocket said. "And nice shooting by the way."

"Anytime," the cat said.

The ringtail took a small communicator out of a pocket of his suit and briefly informed Peter about the status of the mission. Then he commanded, "You guard Drax, I go up and disable security."

"Okie dokie," his companion acknowledged.

Rocket climbed up a flight of stairs to the first floor. He entered in one of the two upper cubes. The first one had a narrow corridor and two inbuilt rooms with open doors. He peeked around the corner of the first door. There were three Skrulls behind security monitors. He lay flat on his belly and shot them one by one. Shortly after, the Skrulls hung limp in their chairs. The masked mammal briefly studied the security system and issued a number of commands.

The second room contained bunk beds with sleeping Skrull in it. Rocket took them out silently.

He sneaked to the next cube. This one had a more mysterious interior. Two Skrulls in white coats monitored a big vertical chemical reactor that was connected to smaller copies all around. The rest of the room was filled with computers that were connected to the reactors by massive flat wires running over the floor. Rocket didn't pay too much attention to what the coats were doing. He disabled them and signalled the rest of the crew that the site was secure and they could come in to take Drax away.

Peter, Gamora and Groot approached from roughly the same spot Rocket and Sam had left the jungle before. With large steps, Groot walked towards the building. Peter and Gamora run alongside with weapons in their hands. They mounted the platform. Groot went in. He walked through the corridors, to the place where Sam was guarding the unconscious Drax. Meanwhile, Rocket came down the stairs. Groot lifted Drax and carried him towards the exit. The two animals followed.

At the entrance, Peter and Gamora waited impatiently for the rest of the crew to come out. Suddenly, Gamora went into the building.

"What are you doing?" Peter asked, "that's not the plan."

"I'm worried. Let me check if they need help."

"OK, but come back as quickly as possible."

Rocket was surprised to see Gamora come through the corridors. While Groot and Sam continued to run to the exit, the ringtail halted the green woman. "What are ya doin', Gam? Ye're supposed to guard the exit," he inquired.

"The exit is secure. I'll watch the teleport until Drax is safely outside. Do you have explosives?"

"I never leave without, ya know me"

"Give me some, I'll detonate the building so no one can come after us."

"I can do that."

"No, you go! You're not properly armed. Who knows who may beam in."

"OK, alright then. Here's my baby. Gives ya a minute time."

Gamora took the time bomb and went in the direction of the teleport room. Groot and Sam left the building and continued to run towards the Milano. When Rocket came out, Peter asked, "Where's Gam?"

"She's gonna blow up the place."

"OK," Peter said, "I'll wait here for her."

"Ya may want ta step back a little. The blast range is about a hundred metres."

Both Guardians ran to a safer place at the edge of the clearing and waited for Gamora to come out.

* * *

Soon, Groot and Sam arrived at the Milano. Drax was brought to the lower section. Sam told how the warrior had attacked the raccoon and asked Groot to chain him to the wall for safety. While he was doing that, they heard the echoes of gunfire. Shortly thereafter, the floor rumbled and the ship shook.

Sam and Groot became nervous; they didn't know about Gamora's plan to use explosives. Groot was about to run out of the ship to see if they needed him, but Sam called, "Wait! I can see from here what happened."

Hesitantly, Groot stopped and returned. Sam quickly produced a hologram of the building and the surroundings. "Rocket and Peter are safe, they're not wounded."

This calmed Groot down a bit. "I am Groot?"

"Yes, I'm checking ... How odd, I can't find Gamora."

"I am Groot?" the tree-man asked in shock.

"No, I can't find anything. Her body is not there. Even stranger, the bodies of the Skrulls are gone too."

Suddenly, a big red sign appeared above the hologram of the contorted shreds of the metal building.

"Shit!" Sam exclaimed, "There's a biohazard." He took his communicator and called, "Rocket?"

"Sam, the building collapsed and Gamora didn't come out. Send Groot!"

"She's not there, I scanned the place. Rocket, listen carefully: you have to leave the place immediately! Run away from it! There's a deadly biological substance."

"How do ya mean she's not there? We need to find her and pull her out!"

"Trust me, please. She's not there. She must have gone through the teleport. The Skrulls are not there either. You have to hurry and come back to the ship!"

Sam heard a short discussion between Rocket and Peter. He heard how, before the building exploded, Peter and Rocket were shot at and someone dragged the Skrull soldier lying on the outside platform back inside. Apparently, things hadn't gone according to plan. Then Peter took the com and noticed Sam that they would come his way.

Sam urged, "Hurry, your lives are in danger. I read a high virus concentration." Then he asked Groot, "Can you guard Drax? I'll run towards them, so I can help them."

Groot nodded.

Sam quickly put on his backpack and sprinted out of the ship, in the direction of the clearing.

When he approached the open place in the forest, he could see Peter and Rocket running and stumbling. Both coughed up red mucus. Sam tended to the raccoon first. He popped up a small medical device and programmed it. Then he asked peter to sit down and did the same with him. It took a minute before they could breathe normally again.

Sam explained, "They must have had some kind of virus laboratory. It's an aggressive strain, it destroys lung tissue."

Rocket answered, "One of the top rooms had a reactor chamber."

Peter looked very unhappy and cursed, "Flark it! We lost Gamora. We have to get back."

"It's no use," Sam replied. He popped up a hologram and tried to trace what had happened inside. First, he zoomed in on the transporter room. The displayed scene showed Gamora standing outside the room, while a number of men and women came out.

"Nova officers!" Peter noticed with surprise.

"Yes, and they match the missing Nova Corps members."

He zoomed in on Gamora. One of the high-ranking officers had a conversation with her. It almost looked as the warrior woman had been expecting these men to come out; she looked calm while she talked to the man. Then she stuck the bomb to the cube's wall, set a time delay and put the device on standby.

Sam changed the point of view of the scanned 4D footage. Two officers ran to the front of the building. One shot at Rocket and Peter, while the other one dragged the sedated Skrull back in. Then they closed the doors. Meanwhile, the other officers where hastily picking up the Skrulls lying all over in the building. They marched back to the teleportation device. The last to go in was Gamora. She activated the charge, stepped into the teleporter and disappeared. Ten seconds later, the explosive went off.

Peter sat on the ground and looked at the scene, pretty much without a clue. Rocket and Sam were equally baffled. Nobody knew what to say.

The cat switched off the hologram.

Peter looked with hollow eyes to Rocket and muttered, "Gamora too, they have her too."

His raccoon friend acknowledged silently. He looked aghast.

They got up and walked back to the ship in a slow pace. While they entered, Sam said to Peter, "We have chained Drax below. In case he tries to do something funny. Groot is guarding him."

Rocket went to the cockpit. Not to fly the ship; he just needed a place to sit down. Out of Drax's sight. He wasn't ready yet to confront himself with the man he once called his friend.

Peter and the cat went below. Drax made small movements and moaned. He was about to come to his senses.


	10. Brain Damage

**Brain Damage**

Groot had shackled Drax to a pallet with enough chains to prevent a man with his strength from breaking loose. Groot had also taken away all his weaponry and hid it in a safe place.

The drugged warrior tried to attain a sitting posture, blinking his eyes and shaking his head.

Peter sat on a chair close by and observed him. Sam had taken a medical scanning device and was studying a hologram of the big man's brain. He operated the controls of his interface, zoomed in and out, typed in queries and looked very concentrated.

Drax glanced at him with some estrangement. Then he turned his head to face Peter, who looked back with the stern expression of a captain who was going to discipline a renegade crewmember.

Drax was the first to speak, "Peter, what have you done?"

The leader of the Guardians waited a few seconds to respond and then said with restrained annoyance, "I tell you what I've done. I - we - rescued your ass out of the big mess you got yourself into and now we lost Gamora."

The tattooed warrior looked relieved. "Thank the gods! Gamora can replace me."

"What?" Peter shouted. He slid to the edge of his chair and asked angrily, "I give you ten seconds to explain what you think you were doing or else I'll ask Groot to convince you!"

Groot said, "I am Groot!" and even he sounded angry.

"I will not tell you what this is all about. You can't possibly understand."

Peter jumped up from his chair and was going to do something he would regret later, but Sam intermitted, "It's no use, Peter! You can torture him all you want; he's not going to talk."

"Why is that?" Star-Lord asked, looking down at the cat.

"I've analysed his brain. There are some unusual changes. This is not the man you knew a few days ago."

Peter's anger made room for worry. He only recently met the cat but knew by now that he wouldn't talk nonsense, even if his findings might seem unlikely at first glance. He went back to sit on his stool. "Tell me about it."

"At first sight, it looks like a mild form of psychosis. He's open to suggestions. But not just any suggestion. His delusional state has been triggered by very specific concepts that seem not to be his own. It's like parts of his memory system have been reengineered.

Theoretically, it can be brought about by many things. As the Skrulls had a virus laboratory, my guess would be that it has been induced by an artificial virus. Probably custom designed for his DNA, so it does only affect him and nobody else."

Star-Lord frowned while he took the message in and tried to order his thoughts. "So if I understand you correctly, someone inserted a virus into his brain to make him ... follow commands?"

"That's how it looks. He thinks that he's on a very important mission and will do anything to protect his target. Even if the 'real' Drax would dismiss it as nonsense."

Peter looked baffled. Suddenly, the fierce warrior in chains wasn't a stubborn, dangerous traitor anymore, it was a sick man. Groot looked at him with pity in his eyes. "Can you undo the damage?" Peter asked.

"Any injury outside the head can be healed with our technology. However, brain afflictions are more complicated. I'm optimistic, but we have to do it step by step and I have to consult a colleague."

"OK, you do that," Peter said with a weary voice. He got up and climbed to the upper deck, to keep Rocket informed.

Drax warned Sam, "I don't know what kind of devil you are, but you are not getting inside my brain!"

Sam responded, "What if I'm telling the truth? What if someone altered your brain?"

"Those are lies! I know what you are trying to do. You conspire to sabotage the mission. You will fail!"

"You can't tell anyone about this mission, if I understand you correctly," the cat remarked.

"No, I can't and won't tell you."

"Do you even know yourself what the mission entails?"

"Yes, the mission is ... it's glorious, it's ... Wait! You are trying to trick me! I won't say another word."

"That's what I thought. You're having problems to formulate the mission objectives, even to yourself. I don't think the mission is real. They turned you into a slave. I'm sorry, Drax, but I'm a doctor. I have to help you, even if you don't agree in your current state."

The red-green, tattooed warrior was towering over the little cat, even while he was sitting down. He stubbornly resolved to silence.

Sam took his back pack and got out a small white disc. He made it move through the air and land on Drax's forehead. Then it disappeared. "It's a neuromodulator," Sam explained. "I will use it to sedate you and undo most of the modifications they made to your brain."

The warrior looked at him in disbelief. He slowly closed his eyes and fell asleep.

"He will sleep until I wake him up," Sam said to Groot. "You can unchain him; he's no longer dangerous now."

* * *

Before he was going to help Drax, Sam went to the upper deck and walked towards Rocket and Peter, who were sitting in the cockpit and were discussing the situation. Sam seated himself in one of the backseats of the cockpit, listened for a short while and then interrupted their conversation. "What are we going to do from here?" he asked Peter.

"Can you cure Drax?"

"I will try."

"We need him back. We have to go look for Gamora. Have you any idea where she might be?"

"I already started a tracking algorithm but it's not easy. This teleportation system is powerful; it probably has a range of more than a billion light-years. Our system has trouble tracking such a device; it can take a long time before we know her destination. I think it would be faster to reverse engineer the thing."

"How are we goin' ta do that? The device didn't survive the blast," Rocket said.

"I can create a holographic duplicate. Would you be able to work with that?"

"Depends how good ya can replicate the machine."

"Pretty good, down to subatomic particles."

"That good, huh?" Rocket replied.

"OK then, I'll set up a larger holographic display and I'll see what I can do about Drax. I have to warn you that even if I manage to undo the effect of the virus, it may take a while before he will be normal again. His whole belief system has been shaken."

"We'll handle that when we get there," Peter replied.

"And another thing: we're still in the range of the biohazard. There's an unhealthy concentration of virus particles in this ship. We need to do something about that."

Rocket suggested, "I'll get us into orbit and turn on life support. And I'll give the bio-filters a boost."

"That would be a good idea."

The ship lifted up from the planet and went into orbit. Sam descended to the lower deck, where he asked Groot to lay Drax flat on his back on the bunk. Then he contacted a crewmember of the Tangerine. It was a female catlike creature, probably of the same species as Sam, but with Siamese fur colour markings. She wore a two-piece black dress.

"Hi Susan," Sam greeted her.

"Hi Sam, how are you?"

"Fine, how are you?"

"You've been away quite a while now."

"There's a lot of exciting stuff going on here."

"We should catch up."

"Don't worry, I'll contact you after we have resolved a few issues here."

"Yeah, or maybe I'll come over to have a chat. Can I help you with something for the mean time?"

"Yes, I need your advice on a medical problem."

Sam explained the condition Drax was in and sent Susan data. Meanwhile Rocket came down the stairs. He walked towards the group and sat down. He looked at the female cat in the small hologram with fascination in his eyes.

Sam said, "How rude of me. Susan, this is Rocket."

"Hi Rocket! Nice to meet you."

The raccoon grinned shyly and raised his hand to say, "Hi! Nice to meet you too!"

Susan smiled. Sam and Susan were both cats, but looked different. For example, Susan's eyes were slanted whereas Sam had a more open facial expression. _Rocket thought the female cat looked gorgeous_. Sam continued his discussion with her and soon he knew what he wanted to know and closed the connexion.

"You like her?" Sam asked a bit directly, but friendly.

"She's pretty," Rocket replied.

"Susan is kind of our captain. Like Star-Lord is yours; we're not so tightly organised either. She's also a medic, like me."

"A doctor. Hmm pity. I started ta like her."

"What's with you and doctors anyway?"

"Let's say I met some of the wrong kind."

"You really should meet Susan. She's a lifesaver."

"Yeah, that's what medics are s'posed ta do."

"No, she literally saved my life. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for her."

"Really? What happened? Did ya have an accident or somethin'?

"No I was in jail and she got me out."

Rocket made a coughing sound in surprise and exclaimed, "You were in prison? A boy scout like you?"

"I was in for murder."

"No really? Ya killed someone?"

"No, I didn't. I was innocent."

Rocket joked, "An innocent convict. That's original."

With a mix of indignation and sadness, Sam exclaimed, "But I was innocent!" He paused for a moment and looked at the floor. "No, that's not entirely true. A rescue operation went wrong and I was accused of having caused people to die. I believed so myself." He sighed. "But Susan could prove I didn't."

"What's your story?"

"It was a long time ago, in my former life so to speak. A colonist ship had crash-landed on a small moon. I rescued four colonists and managed to bring them back to the rescue ship. But then a terrible disease broke out on the moon. I learned that the moon was in fact a quarantine zone. The colonists urged me not to make another rescue attempt due to the seriousness of the plague - it would get out and spread through the cosmos. However, I could not convince my superiors. So I high-jacked the rescue vessel and destroyed the moon."

Rocket looked surprised and replied, "You killed an entire moon?"

"I had to!" Sam said with pain in his voice. "It was a terrible decision to make. But I accepted my penance. In my head, I've lived for years with the image of innocent survivors who died because of my action." He paused and then said with an affected voice, "I met Susan years later, when I was in jail. She could prove that the four I rescued were the only survivors." He swallowed and continued in a calmer voice, "She had been on the Tangerine long before me. She used advanced equipment to analyse what really happened. The judges accepted the evidence and I was released. Then I joined the Tangerine and stayed since then."

The raccoon seemed to be impressed. He looked at Sam without saying anything.

Sam continued, "Frankly, I don't much like to talk about it. It was the worst episode of my life." Then he added in a more cheerful voice, "On the upside, Susan inspired me to become a doctor too. And she's a very fine doctor, I can assure you."

"My life hasn't been a walk in the park either," Rocket replied. "Believe me, I have reasons ta distrust doctors."

"Even the nice ones?"

"People can seem nice at first. Those are the worst."

"I don't think I can persuade you to think differently."

"Look, I may tell ya my life's story some time too, but we have work ta do. Ya wanted to show me yer large hologram."

"That's right, let me get you there. First, I need to set up a portal." The cat removed his back pack and took out a white disc the size of a human hand. "This creates a portal to a bigger place, where I can access a holodeck." He looked around. "I need a wall that is more or less vertical."

"The backside of the lower deck is the most upright surface of this ship."

"That'll do." Sam walked towards the backside and stuck the disc to the wall, a little above his head. He activated the device. An orange coloured symbol appeared on the disc; it was an abstract picture of a tangerine. He pushed it and immediately a closed black door appeared in the wall. It had round corners and looked like a ship door. It was about 1.5 metres high. He pushed the symbol again. The doorway stayed in place while the door inside dissolved. A white hallway appeared at the other side with flanking white doors.

Sam stepped through the portal and Rocket followed.

"Neat," the ringtail said.

"We have pretty cool portal technology; we use it for almost everything. We just moved a few hundred million light-years away from the Milano."

"So where are we now?"

"This is a local space bubble in an empty part of this universe, far away from any galaxy, star or planet. This white corridor gives access to various rooms." Sam opened one of the doors. They went through and stepped into a large, empty hall covered with shiny, blue panels. "This is a state of the art holodeck. I can reproduce the teleport in hard light."

"How is it that ya have trouble trackin' teleports if ya have this kind of equipment yerself?"

"The teleport system the Skrulls use is not compatible with ours. I think you can understand their technology better than we do. Besides, our tracking system is limited. It's best equipped to follow baryonic matter in normal space-time. And we can track FTL movements through subspace to some extent. However, portals can be very exotic. It's beyond the scope of our system."

"I see."

The cat popped up an interface and started to issue a number of commands. A small holographic image appeared. It showed the Skrull teleport as it looked before it was destroyed. It also displayed Gamora activating it. Soon after, the holographic emitters of the holodeck became active and built up a precise replica of the teleport that was inside the cube.

"This is a 4D recording," Sam explained. Here is a simple control interface for the hologram. You can play it forward and backward. You can also cut out parts, enlarge them, check signals, etc. Just call me if you need help."

"I'm pretty sure I can work with this equipment."

"Absolutely. Good luck finding out where she went. I'm going back to my patient."

Rocket started analysing the device to check if he could find clues. Sam went back through the corridor, into the Milano. He stepped towards Drax, who was still asleep on the bunk, and set up medical equipment.


	11. Send in the Cavalry

**Send in the Cavalry**

Peter contacted Rhomann Dey. The Nova officer was in the middle of a training when he answered, "Peter! Good to hear from you. Wait a few minutes, I'll go to my office and then we can talk."

After a short while, Star-Lord's communicator beeped and he connected. "Rhomann, what about the problem we've discussed?"

"I've encrypted this line. We need to be cautious."

"OK, I'll try to explain our current status without giving away too much. I can tell you that we found our package."

Denarian Dey brightened up. "That's good news!"

"Not really. We're back to square one. A member of our crew disappeared during the rescue."

"You mean, vanished like ..."

"Yes."

"I'm really sorry, Peter. Can you give me details?"

Peter thought a moment about what would be safe to say. He continued, "We're still tracking."

After a pause, he added, "We have some clues about the problem. It's not pretty. Basically, it's hard to know if anyone can be trusted. What do you suggest we do?"

"Do you trust me?"

"I sure hope I can; but to be honest, this thing makes me paranoid. We're dealing with a condition that can affect anyone."

"We have to find a way to deal with this. The Corps is still loosing people and at the moment we're a sitting duck. I need you back here to brief me. I don't know who to trust either."

"How do you know I'm not affected? Why do you think you can trust me?" Peter asked.

"I'm willing to bet on that. Besides, your operation is the only one that seems to have made any progress."

"OK, we'll come to you, but I don't think Nova headquarters is safe. Can you meet us at Knowhere? Alone?"

"I'll arrange it. Come as quickly as you can."

Peter put the ship on autopilot and went to the deck below. Sam was working with his medical equipment. A rectangular device floated above Drax's head. The cat worked with a holographic interface to command the floating box. He was so caught up in it that he didn't notice Peter sitting down on an opposing bunk. Groot signalled him to be quiet.

Peter looked around and noticed a new door in the back of the ship. This didn't make any sense, because the door would give access to a shielded part of the engine room. After some thinking, he figured that it must be a portal. He walked towards it. He couldn't find a handle, but there was a white disc on the wall with an orange symbol. He tapped the symbol and the door opened. He bent down and went in. There were a number of white doors. He tried some of them; one wasn't locked. He entered and saw Rocket being busy in a holodeck, working with the teleport replica. "How are you doing, Rocky," he asked.

"This is tough shit. Not yer everyday teleport technology. I figured out part of it. See, this memory bank contains the destination data. If I manage ta decrypt it, we're in business."

"Sounds good."

"Don't cheer yet."

"Rocky, I need you to co-pilot. We're going to Knowhere. We need to see Rhomann Dey."

"Finally! Let's mobilise the troops."

"I'm worried about something. This brain-altering virus can be everywhere. What if Dey is infected?"

"Ye're getting paranoid, huh? How did he look when ya talked to him?"

"He seemed to be the guy I know. But how can we be sure?'

"We can't, unless we got a way ta detect if someone is infected."

"I'll check with Sam if he can come up with something."

"That might work. His people seem ta be able to track a lot of things."

"I'll ask him when he's done operating Drax. We need to get on our way, come with me."

Rocket dropped his work and both Guardians stepped into the Milano again. Sam had just completed the operation and was closing down the equipment.

"Don't ya need scalpels an' stuff to operate?" the raccoon asked Sam.

Sam turned around and said, "We don't even have scalpels. That's so yesterday. Massive 4D nanoportation is less intrusive and completely painless."

"Did it work?" Peter asked.

"I'm optimistic. His brain chemistry is back to normal and his memory should function properly. I expect him to be able to reason again."

"That flarknard can't reason his way out of a broom closet unless ya performed a miracle," the ringtail sneered.

"OK, that's enough Rocket, we need to fly this crate."

The Raccoon wasn't done yet. "You better tie him up again before he wakes up. And remove those d'ast knifes!"

"Already done that," Sam replied. "I think it's wise to let Groot guard him for now. He will need some time to recover anyway, so I'll give him a mild sedation to keep him calm."

Meanwhile, Peter set a course for Knowhere.

* * *

During the trip, Sam was checking out if he could learn more about the virus. Both Drax and Groot were sleeping superficially.

The warrior slowly regained his consciousness. Sam dropped his work and checked if his patient was doing all right. Groot woke up too.

Drax rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and sat up on his bunk. He looked around with small eyes, getting his bearings and collecting his thoughts. He glanced at Groot, who nodded friendly, and then noticed the little cat. "You, cat! Have you done something to my brain?" he demanded to know.

"Yes," the cat answered, "I made it back to how it was."

"How do you mean?"

"You had a virus infection. It started on the desert planet you visited some days ago. You didn't seem to be your usual self, according to your crewmates. I cured it and now you are like you were before."

Drax needed some time to process this information. His brain was fuzzy; he found it hard to concentrate. "You didn't do a good job. I'm not clear in my head."

"You'll feel better in a few days. Until then, you need to recover. For now, I've given you a sedative. You may respond a bit slower than you're used to."

The warrior nodded. Then a thought overtook him, "Where are we going? I need to go back to Indezon. The mission is in danger."

"Can you tell me something about the mission?"

"Where is Peter?"

"If I were you, I wouldn't bother Peter for the moment," Sam said in a voice that wasn't unfriendly. "He has a lot on his mind and he didn't like the fact that you left the team. He wants you to stay on board."

The tattooed man tried to get up, but only managed to make the chains rattle noisily. He looked tense. "No, I must go back! We must turn the ship!"

Groot and Sam looked at each other. The unaltered behaviour of the patient made them worry a bit, but they tried not to show it.

"Drax, it's not going to happen, trust me. The mission you're talking about is fake."

"What? Who are you to tell me what to do? What do you know about the mission."

"A lot more than you."

This seemed to catch the attention of the warrior. He sat down, rubbing his pants, nervously gesturing. He couldn't find his daggers. "My knifes!" he called out.

"We removed them for your safety and for ours. Please listen. You've been ill. You're still not right in the head. You may want to think things over before you make rash decisions."

"I need my knifes!" He commanded.

"Your crew doesn't trust you anymore. You need to repair some damage before they hand the weapons back to you."

This took him aback. He started thinking. _The Guardians had been his friends for a while now. He remembered the strange encounter on Waa'i-Du'in with the Kree captain who had been their enemy shortly before. He had been talking with Peter about chasing Thanos. Then he was stationed among a Skrull crew. He recalled how he wounded Rocket; it was a painful memory. The bunk he sat on felt uncomfortable. He wanted to get up, but was forced to stay seated._ Then he decided to hear Sam out and said, "You said you knew about the mission. Tell me."

"You joined a group who said they could track Thanos."

"Yes, I told Peter."

"Have you found Thanos?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"It took more time to track him."

"They had a tracking device, you said."

"Yes."

"Have you seen this device?"

"No."

"So you never actually saw the tracking device. You waited patiently for it to finish, but it never did. You never saw as much as a glimpse of Thanos."

"True."

"And during this time, you worked together with Kree you only met once before, during a fight. These men sent you to an outpost manned by Skrulls, which happen to be their mortal enemies."

"Yes," Drax nodded impatiently. "Now what do you want to tell me?"

"Doesn't all this strike you as odd? Why would you trust a bunch of rogue Kree and Skrulls more than your friends, the Guardians?"

"It was glorious!"

"What was glorious about it? Guarding a door for a day?"

Drax looked confused. _Why was it glorious_?

"It felt glorious."

"Have you ever felt like that before?"

"Yes! When I fought Ronan. And in many battles."

"And you had the same exhilarating feeling while you where guarding a door?"

Again, the tall man fell silent. He was confused. _Did the cat try to trick him or did he make sense?_ "I need to think about it," he concluded.

"That sounds like a good idea. Try to remember what happened, why you did what you did, and see what parts of it make sense. Meanwhile you're in a safe place, among friends who mean well. If you need something, just ask. Maybe you want to eat or refresh yourself?"

The big man didn't say a thing. He sat on the bunk and pondered.

* * *

The ship arrived at Knowhere and docked in the port of the giant head-shaped space structure. Sam was still studying his medical data. Drax and Groot played a game of cards to pass the time. Peter and Rocket came down. Drax looked up. He wasn't sure what to say.

Peter asked him, "Drax, how are you doing?"

"I'm not sure, Peter. I'm confused about what happened in the last days."

"That makes two of us!"

Then Drax saw Rocket and said, "I'm sorry I stabbed you."

The raccoon made a dismissive gesture and said, "Don't do it again." Nevertheless, he looked at the big man with uneasiness and didn't approach him too closely.

Peter took the word, "Listen up guys, I've invited Denarian Dey to our ship. We can't be sure if someone is infected with this virus or not, so it's going to be hard to trust each other."

Sam remarked, "We now can. I programmed my augmented vision system to be able to see if anyone is infected."

Peter said with a hint of admiration, "That's good work, Sam! Does this only work for you or can you share this tech with us?"

"With you, Pete, not with me, "Rocket intermitted, "no cyborg stuff for me."

Sam chuckled. "Cyborg? Ahh come on, that's so passé. All the tech we use is body-external."

"External? Where do ya hide it? I can't see any tech."

"That's because it's invisible and phase-shifted into a parallel dimension. But it's there!"

Peter looked at him impatiently.

"Sure, I can lend some of it temporarily. We don't like the idea to give away tech too much, but I think I can trust you with it."

"What's so special about yer tech?" Rocket asked. "Is it patented?"

"No, that's not it. We don't have patents and we even don't use money. We're just very cautious that our tech doesn't fall into the wrong hands. It's pretty powerful and shouldn't be abused."

"Figures," Rocket said.

Sam looked at Peter and said, "OK, come here and sit down." Then he grabbed his bag and took out two black marble-sized balls. He positioned the marbles in the air, about 10 cm away from each of Peter's eyes.

"Now move your head," the cat said.

The marbles maintained their relative position to Peter's head while he moved.

"Cool. But now I have two floating balls in front of my eyes."

"I'll get to that," Sam said. He gestured a few commands and the balls turned invisible. "Now they're phased out." He continued, "OK, let's do a test. Don't say what you see; let's first ask the rest what they see."

Rocket said, "I don't see anythin'."

The tree-man confirmed, "I am Groot."

Sam asked, "Peter?"

"I see a floating fish."

"Splendid," Sam said. "You now have a private augmented vision system. It will project information that no one else can see onto your retinas. Next, I'll project a symbol that indicates infection above the head of someone in the room. Keep in mind that no one is infected here, it's just a test."

"Groot," Peter said.

Groot looked surprised.

"Can you describe it?"

"It's red, diamond shaped, with a biohazard sign turning around slowly."

"Correct! By the way, you can be certain Groot isn't infected. His biology is incompatible with the virus. Now I switch the sign off. If you see it reappear above someone's head, the person is infected. I'll be able to see it too."

Through one of the Milano's windows, Peter saw Rhomann Dey entering the port.

"And not a minute too soon", Peter said.

"What, do you think he may be infected?" Sam asked.

"It's just a precaution."

* * *

Dey entered the ship. He greeted everybody and then he walked to Drax. He said, "I had to see you with my own eyes. The fact that you are here proves that Sam has been right."

Drax nodded.

Peter said, "Besides that, Sam has given us a system to see if someone is afflicted and I can see you're not."

"That's remarkable," the officer responded. "I'd like to be in on that. I'm dying to find out who is sabotaging our rescue attempts."

"No problem," Sam said, "I'll give you a detection device. But that has to be the last one. I'm not Santa Claus."

Dey didn't understand that last remark, but was OK with it. Dey, Sam and the whole team sat together around a table in the ship to exchange viable information and to create a plan.

Peter did most of the talking. He explained about the installation they found on Indezon, the teleport and the virus.

He asked Sam to add on that and the cat explained, "There actually are two viruses, I found out; one of them is a 'reverse' virus. The bioreactor we saw harvests a special type of virus that has been spread through the planet's atmosphere. It extracts DNA from body cells and then leaves its unharmed victim. The device on top of the cubes sucks the viruses back in and takes the DNA out for analysis. Rocket and Peter had lung problems because the virus density was unusually high after the explosion. In low concentrations, it's virtually undetectable."

"What do you think is the purpose of that system?" the Denarian asked.

"I presume they harvest DNA to create a catalogue. That way they can select people they want to abduct. The second virus type I found is the actual 'brain virus'. It only affects people who's DNA matches a predetermined profile. Once you're infected with that type, it changes your brain to make you receptive to certain commands and suggestions."

Drax had a painful look on his face when he heard this explanation. He had trouble grasping the fact that he, a mighty warrior, had been in such a vulnerable state - even for a short period.

Peter continued, "When we freed Drax, Gamora must already have been infected. She went into the building and tricked us. A number of men and women were teleported in. They were Nova officers. Sam, can you show the footage?"

A hologram appeared with various scenes inside the cube building, where Nova officers grabbed Skrull soldiers and dragged them back into the teleportation system.

Dey's eyes were open wide in amazement. He recognised the officers. They all had gone missing in the last weeks.

"D'ast!" he swore. "That's where they are! Thank the gods they're alive."

Rocket said, "I've finished my analysis of the teleporter. I know where they went. Ya can send in the troops."

Rhomann Dey looked Peter straight in the eyes. Star-Lord seemed to know what the officer was thinking. They were silent for a moment.

Rocket noticed this interchange. _He suspected both men to have second thoughts for some reason and didn't like it._ "What's the matter with you two?" he called out. "We need ta bring in the big guns now! We need ta smoke them out while we're hot on their trail!"

Dey said, "I agree, really I do. But there are complications."

"What complications?"

"Why do you think we sent you out on a mission instead of doing it ourselves? We had data about the locations of our officers too, remember?" He paused and then said, "I can't say more than that. Before we do anything, I need to go back to headquarters to take care of a certain matter. Please keep this between us."

Rocket quickly drew the logical conclusion, nodded and said, "I see ..."

Somewhat bitterly, Sam complained, "Now I understand why they were so hesitant! First, I thought they took me for some paranormal quack. I told them we rely purely on technology. Then they demanded to see all our blue prints. I told them no, that's not how we work."

Now that the proverbial cat was out of the bag, Peter asked, "How high up do you think this goes?"

"I suspect two Centurions are compromised. The evidence about the missing Corps members you gathered can not be ignored. As soon as Nova Prime is informed, she can intervene and we can finally come into action."

"OK, I think we know what we have to do," Peter decided. "Sam, would you fix officer Dey a detection device? Rocket and I will fly the Milano to Xandar ASAP and lay low until Dey has tackled the Nova problem. Then you signal us, we come in and join a police mission to liberate the infected."

"Agreed!"

"I almost forgot," Sam said, "I've made vaccines."

"You're really a useful guy," Star-Lord said with a smile and patted Sam on the back, "hit us!"

The ship left Knowhere and set off to Xandar.


	12. Who Can You Trust?

**Who Can You Trust?**

Peter landed the ship outside Xandar's capital in an abandoned industrial zone. Dey walked a few kilometres and used public transportation to get back to headquarters. When he entered the main hall, it seemed that he was going to be in business right away. Nova Prime was having a discussion with the two Centurions he distrusted. He saw two red diamonds rotating above their heads. He was right! _These guys were infected._

Casually, he approached the group. He saw the two officers half from behind; they were facing Nova Prime and talking in turns. While he closed in on the group, Nova Prime saw him and gave him a quick glance. Dey greeted friendly and looked again at her, then at the two officers. _But something was not right._

Now he was less than ten paces away and studied the two rotating diamonds, trying not to look suspicious. One of them marked Centurion Yon. Suddenly it hit him: _the other diamond wasn't pointing to the second Centurion, but to Nova Prime! Nova Prime was infected!_ This dreadful discovery made him stumble. He caught his pace again and tried to keep approaching as nonchalantly as possible, while he feverishly worked out an alternative line of conversation. _The plan was to confide in Nova Prime to remove the two officers. This was no longer possible. He had to come up with some trivial talk, get the hell out and rethink._

The officers finished talking. The Centurions went their way and Nova Prime looked at Dey with friendly eyes. "Denarian, how are you doing?" she asked.

Dey put on his best poker face and said, "Given the circumstances, I'm doing fine." _He figured it would be best to mix part of the truth with some white lies_. "I've set up a few meetings with our good friends, the Guardians. They followed a lead, but came up empty," he lied.

"The lead your little expert gave you?"

"Yes. He was quite self-confident; the Guardians didn't find any missing persons at the coordinates he provided, however."

"I'm sorry to hear that. I appreciate your initiative. If you get more concrete clues, please fill me in."

"I'll let you know first," the Denarian pretended. Then he went to his office to make it seem he had a normal working day. But at times, he almost panicked as the gravity of the situation sunk in. _The centre of the Nova Corps was infected! How was it possible that the Nova Force, a phenomenal power to which Nova officers and Corpsmen had access, was not able to handle such a major security breach?_

After an hour of what looked like ordinary deskwork, he went to his superior and made up a story so he could leave to meet with the Guardians again - in secret. He didn't want to involve any colleagues at the time being. Apart from the two high ranking officers, he hadn't detected any more infected. But Nova Prime was a force to recon with. Revealing information to the wrong person could lead to events spiralling out of control. He needed to discuss the current state of affairs with the little group of people he could rely on.

He used a Nova Corps Starblaster to get on his way without raising suspicion. He parked it at the outskirts of the city. Then he used the public transport again and made sure he wasn't followed. He walked towards the Milano for the last kilometres.

Rocket let him in. Peter joined them as they went down to discuss the situation. "Have you been able to solve the problem?" he asked.

Dey said straightforwardly, "It's much worse than I suspected. Nova Prime is infected."

This message caused a shock. Except for a few frustrated interjections, no one knew how to answer. This was a major setback and there was no obvious way to solve it. What can you do if the head of a major police force with superpowers has been corrupted?

After a while, Peter tried to force a decision, "We're going to get Gamora back, no matter what it takes. We can't rely on the Nova Corps any more."

"We may have a problem there, Pete," Rocket said. "She currently is ... err ... held in a Galaxy in the Virgo cluster. It would take us ten days to get there. The Guardians are down to four persons. We can't use the trick Sam and I played before. This time we really need ta bring in heavy artillery."

Peter agreed, "Then we have to find an army of some sorts."

"I'm really sorry guys," Dey responded. "Meanwhile, I have to think what to do about our internal problems and to tell you the truth, I have no clue. We can't let this continue. We have no idea who is pulling the strings behind the curtain. Who knows how big this is? Getting Nova Prime back is a first priority as far as I'm concerned." He looked at Sam and asked, "You managed to heal Drax. Can you do the same for Nova Prime?"

Sam didn't answer directly. It seemed to be a big question. Then he replied, "It's not going to be as straightforward as healing Drax. There are complications."

"What complications," Dey asked with concern.

Sam pondered, moving his eyes to the right and the left, thinking about what to say. Finally, he explained, "Firstly, Nova Prime is not someone you can just hold down, sedate and treat. I suggest we work out a ruse for getting her treatment. She needs to be unconscious for a while."

"We'll figure something out."

"Secondly, I or my teammates from the Tangerine can't do that ourselves."

"Why is that?"

"Basically ... it's an alternate reality thing."

"How do you mean?"

"I didn't tell this yet, because there was no need to. But we, the Tangerine team, come from afar. We are guests in this universe, so to speak."

Peter asked, "Do you come from an alternate universe?"

Sam answered, "Basically, yes. The Tangerine is an independent micro-universe."

"Then what is the problem?" Peter wanted to know.

"We can't interfere too much. As I told, we have ethical rules. Besides that, there are physical restrictions. Things like making a trip to an alternate universe or doing time travel can end up in a big mess if you don't stick to certain rules. In our case, the rule is: we can't make big changes like saving entire planets or blowing up stars. I have to check it out with my crew, but dealing with a major force like Nova Prime is probably beyond our reach."

"That sucks," Peter said.

"Actually, it's a good thing. You don't want some extra-universal force to come in and blow up stars and stuff. Not that we ever would consider doing something like that of course." Then he looked up and said, "But it doesn't mean we can't do anything. It just means that somebody else has to do it. I can assist in the process."

"What would you suggest?" Dey wanted to know.

"If you can confide in one of your medics, I can show him the procedure. It shouldn't be too hard; as far as I know, the proceeding is compatible with Nova med-tech."

"That sounds like a plan to me," Rhomann Dey responded. "I may just know the person to do it." He looked at Peter, "What if we try this first? If we can free Nova Prime, I expect her to give green light for the deployment of a frigate and a full crew to go over there. Then we have a fighting chance at least. A frigate can take us there in one day."

Rocket brought up, "I agree. The Guardians are a stand-alone army, don't get me wrong. But a ten day journey doesn't give us a useable response time. Who knows where they beam themselves to next? A frigate we can follow in slipstream, which gets us there in one day as well."

This sounded like 12 percent of a plan, at least.

Dey asked, "Sam, would you come with me? I know a person we can trust. I want you to teach her what you know about the virus."

"OK."

Peter concluded, "Let's assume that healing Nova Prime will be a success. We need to plan further steps. Rocket?"

"Sure! I'm already on it."

While Rhomann Dey and Sam walked towards the exit, Rocket casually asked Sam, "Can you guys blow up stars?"

"It's not so hard. Some civilisations in this universe can do it too."

"Wanna show me how to do that?"

Sam laughed. "Are you serious?"

"Ya probably can't do that, right, 'coz of all yer stinkin' rules."

"You catch up quickly. Besides, why would you want to blow up a star?"

"Ya know, fer the firework." He chuckled. "Or if ya really need ta destroy a bad guy."

Sam smiled. "I never know if you're joking, whether you have anger issues or if you're serious about stuff like this."

"I don't have anger issues!" Rocket protested with annoyance in his voice. "What ever made ya think that? I'm a demolition expert, ya dope!

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry if I offended you; I meant to be teasing."

"Are you two finished?" Denarian Dey asked impatiently. "We have important business."

"Sure, sure," Sam said and he followed the officer to get to his ship.

* * *

The cat and the officer took a ride in the public transportation system. They got out close to the location of Dey's parked craft. While they were walking towards it, Sam asked, "Can you tell me more about this medic?"

"It's the head of our medical department. Her name is Tama Zun. She's Rigellian."

"How big is your medical division?"

"About thirty people. Minus one abductee."

"Are they all reliable?"

"Tama I can literally trust with my life. But she knows her staff better than I do, so we'll need to trust her judgement about who to let in on the scheme. I presume that's what you worry about."

"Indeed. I have an idea. We need to cure Nova Prime and we need to inoculate the entire Corps. Would that be their formal task?"

"Yes, we are the highest authority on Xandar. Medical services run through our own department."

"If we can trigger a quarantine emergency, we can get them their shots without raising suspicion."

"That may work. We had a similar situation ten years ago."

"Was she involved?"

"Yes. She was a staff member then. She later became head of the department."

"We need to create a fake epidemic. Problem is, for a medic that may be an ethically doubtful operation. Do you think you can order her to do something like that?"

"No, they outrank everyone on medical decisions. But I think I may convince her."

"I suggest we both go to meet with her and have a talk about these kinds of contingencies."

"Yes, and we should do it as soon as possible. But we can't do it in the open."

"What do you propose?"

"Let me see if I can get her to come with us. We can meet at my place."

* * *

The Starblaster arrived at Nova headquarters. Dey said, "Stay in the craft. The less they see us together, the better".

The Denarian walked through the building, took the elevator and arrived at the medical department on the highest floor, right under the emergency flight deck. At the reception, he asked for Tama and said it was urgent.

Tama, Rigellian, yellow skin colour and oversized head, came to the desk after ten minutes.

"Are you busy?" Dey asked.

"Always," the Rigellian answered.

"Can you spare a few minutes? I have an urgent matter."

"Sure."

They went into her office. The Nova officer came right to the point, "I met an expert who has information about an impending pandemic and I have reasons to believe him. I need you to see him right away. Can you reschedule?"

"How serious is it?"

"Highest threat level."

"Why didn't you invite him here?"

"The information is very sensitive. If it gets out, we have a global panic. I don't even trust the security of this office. That's why I want to take you and him to my place and discuss the matter."

"That's highly unusual."

"Trust me, once you know the details, you will understand why I want to take this precaution."

"Who is this expert?"

"I can't tell you here without putting him in harm's way. But believe me, he's legit. I've been working with him for a week now and his information checks out."

"Is he a medical expert?"

"Yes, he is."

"OK, I'll reschedule and take a few hours off. This better be as serious as you tell me."

"If I ever need you to trust me, this is the time."

Tama walked to her secretary's office and gave instructions. After that, Dey and Tama ran speedily towards the Starblaster.

"The expert came with me in the ship. It's going to be a bit tight, but it's a short ride. Luckily he isn't that big."

Tama was surprised to see a little black cat in the cockpit. He almost had to sit on her lap for all to fit into the cabin. Dey took off and parked close to the apartment where he lived. His wife was surprised to see the mixed company enter, but knew her husband well enough to not ask questions. Instead, she led them to a guest room and offered them beverages.

"So you're the medical expert," Tama asked with a surprised, but non-judgemental tone.

"My name is Sam, I'm a medic like you. We have an urgent situation," he said and looked at Rhomann Dey.

The Denarian continued. He summarised the matter of the missing officers, a case Tama was familiar with of course, and told they had a link.

"I thought this is about a pandemic."

"It's actually worse," Dey said. "We found a viral agent that can change people's brains to make them obedient to an organisation that is unknown to us. We have strong evidence that the missing officers have been infected."

Tama looked alarmed. She was sceptical about the information, but understood how dangerous this would be if it were true. She didn't show her emotions though, but processed the information as professionally as she could. She wasn't head of the medical department for nothing. "OK, give me all the data you have about this virus. We'll go back to the office to issue containment protocols."

The Denarian hesitated and glanced at Sam. Then he told, "This is not like any epidemic you've ever seen. We have even more disturbing news. You may not even believe what I'm going to tell you. I'd like to ask you to look at the evidence before you dismiss it, OK?"

Tama looked at him with a puzzled look on her big face. The situation became more and more unusual. "Will you just tell me what is going on? I've seen a lot of crazy things during my career. Trust me, whatever it is, I can handle it."

"Nova Prime has been infected," Dey said bluntly.

That took her aback for a moment. "That's impossible. Her bio-filters ..."

"I know how it sounds. I found out today. I don't know how it happened, but the evidence is compelling."

"How do you know?"

Sam took the word, "Where I come from, we have pretty advanced tech. I created a device that can detect the infection. I have data about the virus. You can verify the active mechanism. I don't know how the bio-filters were bypassed either, but Nova Prime matches as positive."

Tama said, "Rhomann, if I didn't know you for as long as I do, I wouldn't even consider taking this seriously. I'm not convinced yet either; for all I know, you may have a brain infection yourself and you're trying to pull me into some scheme here."

"Look, Tama, you know about the missing officers. How long since the first disappeared? Three weeks? The count is now on thirty. Why haven't we launched an action yet to retrieve them?"

"Because we don't know where they are?"

"But we do. Sam, can you show the footage?"

Sam activated a hologram, showing the events that occurred in the cube building on Indezon just before the construction exploded. Tama could see a number of her colleagues - some of them she knew well - pass through a teleport, grab Skrull soldiers and disappear with them into the device again.

"This can be fake."

"It's not fake. Sam was there with the Guardians. Gamora, one of their teammates, has been abducted. If you don't believe me, the Guardians can confirm these findings."

Sam continued, "Here, in one of the upper cubes, is a bioreactor. It collects reverse viruses that sample DNA. They use it to select a victim. Then they create a DNA specific brain-altering virus and release it near the person they want to turn."

"Who are 'they'?"

Sam answered, "We don't know. What we have seen is groups of Kree, Skrulls and Nova officers who work together."

"That's bizarre."

"They all have been infected. Drax, one of the Guardians was afflicted too. We managed to save him and I was able to reverse the damaged caused by the infection. Before he was cured, he responded like he was in psychosis: he believed he had to be on a special 'mission' and distrusted his old friends."

"Are you saying that this is a custom-made psychosis?"

"Exactly. The virus reprograms the hippocampus and part of the brain stem. It's able to transmit very specific illusions to the carrier."

Tama was baffled and had a hard time to process this. It sounded solid enough to not be dismissed as paranoid confabulation. She didn't know the cat, but she had always known Dey to be a rational guy who wouldn't just fall for a story without checking evidence.

The Denarian added, "I knew, before I even met Sam and the Guardians, that there was a problem high up in our ranks. I suspected two Centurions to mess with the rescue plans. The point is, we have the locations of the missing officers. We have valid trails. But they delayed actions time and again. Then I found out that not two Centurions, but Centurion Yon and Nova Prime are being manipulated. The other high-ranking officers are misled."

"OK, let's say this all adds up. What do you propose we do?"

"We need to get Nova Prime back."

Tama looked at Dey in disbelief. She raised her hands and tapped her forehead with both, exclaiming, "What kind of predicament do you want to pull me in here? Even if you're right, and I don't say I buy the story yet, that's close to impossible."

"Tama, look at us. Here we are, me, you and an alien who we didn't know until a week ago. Sitting in a room in my place. You're one of the few people I can fully trust. I know this doesn't look much like a full scale rescue operation. This is the best I can come up with. And the Guardians. They are working on a part of the plan as we speak; even if they are one pair of hands short."

"What can we do?" Tama said desperately, "I have some powers, but I'm no match for Nova Prime."

"First things first: you need to look at the evidence we have and decide if you want to be in on this or not. Sam and I have a plan that may work but we can't pull it off without you."

"I have to think about this. Just give me the evidence. I'll take the rest of the day off."

Sam said, "Here you have a data sheet. But be careful! Don't show this to anyone. If they find out what we know, our lives are at risk."


	13. Pandemic

**Pandemic**

* * *

Comment:

This is a relatively short chapter. It's the build-up to the next chapter, in which a breakthrough will finally happen. Prepare yourself for action! I'll try to publish it within 10 days to speed up the pace.

* * *

Rocket was working in Sam's holodeck when Peter came in. "What'cher doing?" the captain asked.

"Sam set up an interface so I can work with his system," the raccoon said and pointed to an abstract floating hologram that looked like a small head of an animal with a muzzle. "I can talk ta this guy and he can run queries. The amazin' thing is, this system can find anythin' in the entire universe. I asked it ta look fer buildings and teleportation devices that are compatible to the ones on Indezon. It already found ten. Some of them are outside the visible universe."

"Sam trusts you with his stuff? Isn't he afraid you'll make a bomb?"

Rocket smirked, "It's almost as if he wants me ta try everythin' out. He didn't give me a lot of instructions, jes' said 'find out yerself'. "So that's what I'm doin'." He asked, "Computer?"

"Yes, Rocket," the floating head spoke back.

"Make Peter's augmented vision system visible."

Two black marbles appeared in front of Peter's eyes.

"Detach them."

The marbles fell and Rocket caught them. He weighed them in his hands. "Here, keep 'em in yer hands," he asked Peter.

Star-Lord rolled the objects in his hands, threw them up and caught them. "I can't feel any mass."

"Yes, but if they were really mass-less, they would float in the air" He probed the marbles with a standard matter analyser and said, "Check this out, they don't register as anythin'. No matter, no energy."

"Yet I can feel them. They're solid. Do you think they're holographic?"

"Not without a holo-emitter."

"Maybe they have built-in emitters?"

"No, that would result in mass. And they would be a lot bigger." Then he commanded, "Computer, hide the augmented vision system."

The marbles in Peter's hand became invisible. Rocket probed the empty space that was left and concluded, "This system uses some hidden dimension I've never heard of. They are completely undetectable."

"So this is pretty advanced stuff."

"It sure is. But the computer interface refuses ta explain how it works."

"Would you be able to create a weapon with this technology?"

"You bet! Imagin' ya can hide a bomb that is completely invisible and undetectable ... the bad guys wouldn't know what hit them. I bet there's more stuff like this. They've got advanced teleportation too. If we could use it, we were able ta walk into the compounds in seconds instead of doin' it the hard way."

"Maybe Sam doesn't agree with that for some reason."

"Yet I got the feelin' that he wants me ta snoop around fer some reason. Besides, he's smart and he knows I'm smart, so he knows what he can expect. If he really wants me not ta see somethin', he better put it behind a big lock. I bet he did. Take this computer interface: as far as I checked, we're in an ordinary holodeck, except the resolution is incredible. The funny thing is, I can't see where the output is comin' from. The data source isn't inside this space-time continuum."

"That's impressive. By the way, can I have my goggles back?"

"Sure, computer, restore Peter's vision system in its previous state."

"Complied," the tiny head said.

"So, if you're not playing around, you're looking for target locations."

"Yes, I told ya I'm workin' on a list. There, 11 pops up. Holy flark, ya see that? 25 billion light-years distance. That's uncharted space. I don't even know how we can get there, 'cept by using the cube teleport system itself."

"I don't know about that. If they control the system, they can send you anywhere."

"I'm trying ta hack the system. If we control the teleport, we can use it how we like it."

"Good work, Rocky. Can I get you something?"

"Send Groot over. I may need his brainpower."

"OK," peter said while he left. He didn't know that Groot was that brainy.

* * *

Tama had set up a meeting with Sam. Sam had used a back entrance of the Nova headquarters and managed to sneak into her office without getting noticed. When he got in, he didn't say a word but first checked with one of his devices if the room was bugged. "What did you decide," he asked when he was done.

"I studied your material. I also checked the medical data of Centurion Yon and Nova Prime. Recent health check data suggest an elevated metabolic marker for mild psychosis, but it's not conclusive. I also studied the file you gave me about Drax. It's rather disturbing."

"Do you believe me then?"

"I've no reason to suspect that any of this is forged. It still feels a bit unreal to me, but I have to follow common sense. So I am at your disposal. What's this plan you and Dey worked out?"

"What would the normal procedure be if Nova Prime would suffer from insanity?"

"The Nova Force would detect it and make another Corps member Nova Prime."

"But that hasn't happened."

"The contingency plan for such an event would be that the Centurions unanimously put her out of office and select a new Nova Prime. However, there's a lot of red tape involved and as one Centurion is infected, this option is not available."

"Then we have to look at less preferable options."

"The circumstances seem to dictate that."

"I'm thinking about a ruse. What if we make them believe they need treatment for something else? And then treat them for the brain disease instead? Without their consent."

"That's a possibility. As they are not accountable, we need to act on their behalf."

"OK, so that would not be an unethical action in your book?"

"The way I see it, no."

"If only the Centurion and Nova Prime are called for treatment, it may raise suspicion. I think we need to make this a part of a general plan, like for example an inoculation for a pending pandemic."

"I'm not OK with that. Inoculations have side effects. They're only acceptable if there's a real pandemic."

"I agree. But what if we create a fake epidemic."

"That's not ethical either. You may create panic and cause harm."

"I know. But in this case, it's not an isolated ethical decision. We need to include the repercussions of letting this situation continue. We can be pretty sure more officers will be infected and will disappear."

"A logical thing to do would be to inoculate all Nova officers against the brain-altering virus. I saw that you developed a vaccine."

"Correct. But we can't tell the truth about the vaccine. The infected people may sabotage the inoculation campaign."

"So you would suggest, we launch a campaign for something else, but give the treated a shot against the virus?"

"Yes. To make it more believable, we can disguise the brain virus antibiotic as a vaccine against the simulated pandemic or even mix them together. For the two infected officers, we need to administer something else. It needs to be an agent that sedates them."

"OK, due to the circumstances I concur with that approach. We should camouflage the brain virus vaccine."

"Fine. Tell me which vaccines you have in store and which outbreak would be sufficient cause for quarantining the building and starting inoculations. I can switch the vaccines with help of Dey and the Guardians. We then can simulate an outbreak in the building."

"OK. I don't like it but if we do it fast, we will not risk panic."

"What about your staff?"

"I can issue quarantine. They will follow protocol."

"And how can we sedate the two infected? I think you should be the one to treat them."

"I can make changes to the schedules of the emergency protocol, so Nova Prime and Yon will resort to my care."

"OK. Next thing, the epidemic needs to be something high Nova officers including Nova Prime have no natural defence against."

"We probably should use Veruvian Plague. Outbreaks are rare, but severe."

"Got it. Lastly, I need to teach you the procedure to heal an infected person."

"I suggest we get to that right away."

The rest of the day, Tama made Sam familiar with the medical equipment the Nova Corps used. After a few hours of instructions, he understood the machinery well enough to be able to adapt the procedure he developed with the Tangerine equipment to Nova Corps technology. Tama memorised the procedure. They walked through it a number of times to make her confident enough to perform it.

At the end of that day, Sam sneaked out and went back to the Milano to update his partners.

* * *

Meanwhile, Rocket had developed an attack plan. The first component was a jamming device for the teleporter. A hole had to be shot into a cube building from above. This projectile trajectory would be safe enough to minimise the chance of collateral damage. Through this hole, the jamming device would be launched into the building to block the escape/ backup route.

The next device he designed was a custom laser cutter that would cut a person-sized hole through the solid metal in seconds, again without the risk of harming insiders. He figured an invasion force would need a number of cutters so they can work in parallel.

The army needed good bio-suits in case the virus reactor would be hit. The Nova Corps had standard bio-suits. But Rocket created a few extra nevertheless. In case the plan to rescue Nova Prime would fail, they had no other option than to go in themselves, with their own equipment.

He integrated his tranquiliser gun into his favourite self-made weapon. He was aware that this was a rescue operation and he should avoid casualties if possible. But he just felt better using his big blaster instead of a tiny popgun.

Finally, he created a routine in his view screen/ computer to override the transporter control. That way, the invasion force would be able to use the teleportation network to get to locations that were just too far away for any FTL spaceship.

* * *

The crew met to put everything together and to plan the mission. Rocket laid out his attack plan, which sounded as well prepared as ever, so there wasn't much discussion.

Sam explained what he had been discussing with Tama. "I have a sample of the Veruvian Plague vaccine. I'll ask my crewmates to make a batch of brain virus vaccine that looks just like it. Furthermore, we need a volunteer to get arrested and to get very sick with fake Veruvian Plague."

No volunteers stepped forward.

Peter said, "I think we don't have a lot of options. Drax can't be out because they still believe we haven't found him. Rocket?"

"It really sounds like fun, but no. Ya know, doctors and me ..."

"So I'm the only volunteer then?"

"Ya figured that out pretty quickly, Pete."

"The nice thing is, you don't even have to act," Sam said with an ironic smile. "I can infect you with something that looks just like it, but doesn't kill you."

"I can't wait to try."

Sam grinned.

* * *

The next day a Starblaster arrived at Nova headquarters. Dey came out with Peter in chains. The captive coughed and seemed drunk. When Dey processed him, a colleague of him said,

"But that's Star-Lord. Do you really want to arrest him?"

"It's for his own good," Denarian Dey replied. "He needs to sober up; we let him go next day."

The moment Peter was put in a cell, he started making a lot of noise. He screamed, "Get me out of here! I'm dying!"

Dey came personally to his cell to warn him to keep quiet. But then he saw how Peter had a green face and how brown blisters popped up on his skin.

The Nova officer quarantined the cell. He instructed his subordinates to keep their distance. He called Tama, the head of the medical department.

Soon she arrived in a bio-suit and looked at the patient. She came out, took a shower, changed into a fresh bio-suit and went back to Dey. The Denarian was scratching his hands. They showed brown blisters. She ordered him to quarantine himself and issued a virus alarm. The building went into lockdown.

Immediately, she contacted Nova Prime and ran to her office. She told her about the emergency and explained the protocol. All personnel with suspicious symptoms had to go into quarantine. The rest needed to be vaccinated directly. All activities were put on hold. A wing of the building was evacuated and set up for vaccinations. The doctors and nurses sped to the different floors of the improvised vaccination centre. Personnel were called and dispatched to the different floors. Even the Centurions and Nova Prime had to go there without delay.

After an hour, all personnel had been vaccinated. The primary safety zone was reduced to the cell blocks where Peter and Dey were locked up. Two nurses in bio-suits tended to their needs. The other medical personnel treated the building, floor by floor, with an anti-viral agent. Half an hour later, the building was scanned for viral particles and came out clean. The office was safe for reopening.

Tama was called during these hectic events. Nova Prime and a Centurion had not been feeling well. They were found unconscious in their offices. Tama told the nurse who accompanied her that they may have had an adverse reaction to the vaccine and needed immediate care. She asked two loyal nurses to assist.

An hour later. Tama had treated both Nova Prime and Centurion Yon. Each of them was taken to a private patient room to recover. Tama stayed with Nova Prime and waited for her to come around.


	14. Awakenings

**Awakenings**

Nova Prime did not speak but seemed to be in a state of trance. Tama knew that she was probably communicating with the Xandarian Worldmind.

When she snapped out of it, her patient complained, "I'm confused. The last three weeks the Worldmind has given me very specific instructions about a threat we are facing. Now the Worldmind is telling me that this all has been an illusion due to a brain virus."

Tama said, "I can concur. You and many officers have been infected. Most were deceived to leave the Corps and to join a secret organisation. You and officer Yon stayed here and were ... manipulated to cover this up."

Irani Rael, the Nova Prime, was stunned by this message. With a trembling voice she said, "That's terrible. I'm perplexed. Part of me believes what you tell me and part of me doesn't. It all seemed so ... real. How can I be sure that I'm not deceived right now?"

Tama didn't know exactly what to say. She wasn't a psychiatrist. She said, "I know that what happens now is real but what you have experienced in the past weeks is not. I know I removed the effects of the virus from your brain. I'm not sure how I can convince you."

Nova Prime stared through the window and watched the busy city for a moment. Then she continued, "I have sabotaged decisions because the Worldmind told me so. Or so I believed. If I haven't been in my right mind, then I have failed as a leader. On the other hand, if I'm not in my right mind now, I can't lead either."

"It's not your fault, this could have happened to anyone," Tama tried to console her.

"It can't happen to Nova Prime!" she exclaimed angrily. "I can't trust myself. The only thing I know for sure is that I'm not fit for duty at this time. We need to transfer the Nova Force."

She paused and seemed to enter a trance-like state again. Then she continued, "Even if the Worldmind doesn't agree. The Centurions have to make a decision."

"I can declare that you're not fit for duty," the doctor suggested.

"Please do so. Start the procedure. It's better that way." Then she inquired, "How is Centurion Yon?"

"I'll go meet him next." She left the room and entered the next one. The Centurion was struggling to come out of his sedation. The man was as confused as Nova Prime. Tama tried to explain the situation as good as she could. Then she asked a psychologist to help the man. She left the room and went down to visit Peter and Rhomann Dey. They still looked very ill. Tama gave them a shot that remedied the fake illness in minutes. Then she informed them about the Nova Prime coming to her senses and her intention to resign. Peter took his com and told Rocket that the plan had worked.

* * *

Sam visited the holodeck. He was curious about the progress Rocket had made. When he came in, the raccoon said, "Peter just called. The plan worked."

"That's great news!" Sam replied enthusiastically. "Splendid!" He looked at the holographic images Rocket had produced. In the meantime, more than 100 portals had appeared, most of them far away from the visible universe. In another corner of the holodeck a display ran, showing a group of indigenous people who entered a cube building with food and things that looked like toys. "Wow, that's a large portal network!" Sam exclaimed.

"Most of them are relay stations," Rocket said. "See the blue dots? That's where the cube buildings are. The green dots are relays. A portal can span at most 3 billion light-years, so they need a lot of relay portals to reach far distances."

"How did you find out?"

Rocket smiled slyly and said, "I followed the traffic. See those ladies with the food? They come in every day. Them and natives from other planets.

Sam understood and nodded, remarking, "I had a hunch you're a clever guy."

"You don't know half how smart I am."

"And so delightfully modest." Then he added, "Can you control the network?"

"Yes I can. There's a message stream between the hubs and the relays ta negotiate pathways. I can hack into that stream and reprogram the command structure. We can own the whole thing."

"Cool," Sam said. His admiration for the smart raccoon was genuine and his face displayed a radiant smile. He didn't have the technical skills to do this kind of hacking himself, but he trusted the raccoon to be quite capable to do what he said. "And where is Gamora?" he asked.

"Here, still on the same spot in the Virgo cluster. She guards a teleportation device, like Drax did."

"I presume they know we can track her."

"Yep. They've set up a trap already. The adjacent hubs are filled with warriors, ready to be beamed over when we get in." Rocket showed a hologram of one of the hubs.

Sam said, "I've never seen this species before. Yellow humanoids with fish heads."

"I don't know them either. I guess they're from an unchartered galaxy. They don't look so dangerous. Hardly dressed and armed with spears."

"We can test their battle skills in a holo-emulation. I bet they have something up their sleeves."

"Can you do that? Good idea. We should get Drax here, ta let him get a taste of it."

"I'll get him," Sam said. He went out through the corridor and went to the tattooed warrior who was resting on a bunk. "Are you ready for some exercise, Drax?"

Drax got up and said, "I most certainly am. I feel pretty useless."

Sam asked Groot, "Groot, can you give the man his weapons back?"

Groot did, it was no problem to him.

"So you trust me again, little cat?"

"I do. I think you're back. How's your head feeling?"

"Better. The fuzziness is gone."

"Fine. Then you're officially healed."

Drax followed Sam into the holodeck. There, the tattooed warrior saw Rocket and greeted him. The raccoon smiled back. It looked like Rocket had forgiven Drax for the mess he had made.

Sam explained, "This is our holodeck. We found some enemy forces. We want you to give your best shot in a simulated battle."

As if to answer, Drax stretched himself and cracked his joints. He took his blades and spun them around. "I'm ready," he said.

Sam did a bit of programming and finally a few fish-men appeared. "OK," he said, "disable them. The program will try to make them respond as realistically as possible."

Sam hadn't spoken his last words when Drax already made a few calculated paces towards the three enemies. Two of them dispersed. The middle one didn't move. Then a barrage of little arrows was launched from a collar-like ring around his neck. Sam used a viewing tool to zoom in on the neck. The entire collar was made of brown arrows the size of toothpicks.

Drax collapsed, screaming with pain.

Sam commanded the hologram to freeze. He took his medical device and checked Drax. Then he pushed a button and Drax recovered. "What happened? Sam asked.

"These needles sting like hell. I was burning with pain."

Sam zoomed in on a needle. He observed it for a short while, and then concluded, "This defence system is not to be underestimated. The needles contain a cocktail of many poisons. If this gets into your bloodstream, you need immediate medical care." Sam tried to pull one of the stingers out of Drax's skin, which led to renewed agony. "OK, this doesn't work. The darts bury themselves in the flesh. End hologram."

The darts and the three aliens disappeared.

"What do you think, Drax, how can a warrior protect himself against this?"

Drax was thinking. He suggested, "Either kill them fast. Or use a blade to shield off the arrows."

"I'm not sure ... they have an awful lot of these poison darts around their neck. And maybe they can keep firing, even after you chop their heads off."

Rocket, who had been observing with half an eye, suggested, "You need a kinetic shield. I can make one."

"Can you make one right now?" Drax asked.

"I'm kinda busy with the transporter network." Then he glanced at Drax, who looked restless after his forced vacation. "OK," Rocket said, "I can do two things at a time." He left his program running and gave a series of instructions to the talking head, the holodeck interface. Finally, a classic looking oval shaped buckler with a grip appeared.

"This shield has a built in force field that is larger than the visible surface. Projectiles will bounce off the front side and beyond, so yer entire body is protected."

Drax took it; Sam activated the three aliens again. This time, Drax charged with the shield in one hand and a big knife in his other. After a while, he managed to decapitate the three Fish Men without being hit by an arrow.

"Nice!" Rocket said admiringly.

Meanwhile, the holomovie with the natives was playing in an endless repeat loop. Sam asked Rocket, "Aren't you tired of watching that footage?"

"What, are ya blind? Those babes are gorgeous."

"Really? I'm not that into humanoids."

"I am fer sure," Rocket enthused.

"You are?" He pondered and said, "But they are so big and hairless. And their ... body openings are so big too. I mean, I can't complain about my own gear, but if I would have sex with one of them, my thing would flop out all the time."

Rocket laughed, "There are other ways to have fun, ya know." He flicked his tongue involuntarily.

Sam grinned, "I see." Then he started to look more serious and said, "I'm thinking ... we got soldiers, we got workers, we got hubs and pathways ... you know what that adds up to?"

"Yes, it's a hive," Rocket answered.

"So what we're looking for is the queen bee."

"A queen with a good taste for women. I bet it's a king bee."

"Or a group of king bees. Any idea where they are hiding?"

"I have a hunch. See the network pattern? Here's where the web is most dense," he said and pointed at blue dots that were twice the size as the rest. "That's where we need ta go."

"Any more freak warrior surprises?"

"I'll look into that. Don't worry, I'll keep Drax busy."

"Fine. I leave you two to it. I need a cat nap."

The feline left the room and curled up on a bunk in the Milano.

* * *

The next day, the Nova senior officers had a meeting. Nova Prime explained the current situation. She had invited Rhomann Dey and Tama Zun to fill in the gaps. It was a long meeting and many questions where asked. Centurion Yon was absent; his psychologist had advised him to take a leave to recover first.

Finally Nova Prime spoke, "I have decided that the Nova Force must be transferred. Know that the Worldmind itself objects to my decision. However, during my illness I have caused too much doubt and confusion. We need to have a new, trustworthy leadership to face this danger."

As a response, the Centurions spoke in disorder. All kinds of objections were ventilated. Finally, one Centurion rose and asked, "Do you have someone in mind?"

"I recommend Denarian Dey."

This suggestion took Dey by surprise. He held his hand palms forward in defence and said, "No, that can't be right. I'm honoured, but I'm the wrong person for this job."

Nova Prime defended her choice, "You're the best man. You were the only one in this corps who knew about the real threat and you had the guts to fight it. If there is anyone worthy to take my position, it's you."

Dey was not convinced. The Centurions weren't satisfied either. Some muttered that it was unprecedented that a lower officer would be promoted to Nova Prime, others insisted that in a time like this, the Nova Force should stay were it was.

Then suddenly, the Xandarian Worldmind itself appeared above the middle of the table as a towering, transparent figure. It had the female appearance of Kree Nova Corpsman Ko-Rel. She spoke, "This confusion must stop. We are paralysed. The time for action is now."

The last word she spoke still rumbled across the room, when a bright flash of light emanated from her chest and hit Denarian Dey. Rhomann Dey felt, much to his surprise, how an incredible force surged through his body. His uniform changed and his insignia transformed, making room for a complete Nova star; the eight-pointed star of the Nova Prime.

At the same time, the old Nova Prime changed back into Centurion Irani Rael and looked visibly relieved.

The decision was made. Dey felt the need to protest but before he could, he fell into a short trance in which the Worldmind introduced himself and gave him his first orders. Dey didn't know what else to do. He stood up, respectfully walked towards his predecessor, who rose up for him. They shook hands. Before he knew it, they had swapped places. The new Nova Prime looked at the gathering of Centurions with a befuddled expression and wasn't feeling very happy. Unceasingly, the Worldmind kept talking in his mind about urgency and the need for immediate actions. Almost like a puppet, Dey repeated what the Worldmind told him. The instructions were clear.


	15. Attack!

**Attack!**

The Nova Corps frigate 'Corona' was on its way to the Virgo cluster. The ship measured 250 metres and had a crew of 800, 350 of which were Corpsmen and officers. The ship had an oval cross-section, the basic shape looked like a horizontal cylinder that had been vertically stretched. It had a blunt, conical front side. The aft ship contained a powerful FTL drive, pushing the frigate towards the Virgo cluster at over ten billion times light-speed. The Milano followed in slipstream.

Rhomann Dey, the new Nova Prime, led the mission. Rocket had been added to the Nova crew temporarily to coordinate the logistics of the operation. Peter Quill, Groot, Drax and Sam stayed in the Milano.

Somewhat over a day after depart, the frigate arrived at Virgo galaxy 1472. In there, the ship followed its course at slower speed to a star called Bar-en-Koud. The ship stopped after passing the star's Oort cloud. There the Milano docked to the frigate. Peter went over to discuss the last details and then went back with Rocket.

The Milano travelled to the cold, rocky planet Bar-en-Koud 4. Rocket readied a precision laser cutter, opened a hatch and secured the device. Peter manoeuvred to an exact location in the sky, kilometres above the cube building, out of detector range.

Rocket activated the cutter, which emitted a small guiding beam. After some position changes of the Milano in the thin stratospheric air, the cutter was positioned at the right angle. Now the raccoon could fire the cutting beam. He monitored the appearance of a growing hole in the metal of a roof cube until it had the right size. Then he launched a self-propelling capsule with a jamming device that flew down, through the hole. From its feedback signal Rocket could verify that it had entered the teleportation chamber. The device welded itself to the floor and activated itself to disable the transporter.

Sam checked his scanning device in the meantime. There was no sudden movement of the soldiers inside the building, which meant that the installation of the jamming device had not been noticed.

Peter opened a com channel to Dey and reported. Soon after, the giant frigate descended from the sky. It landed in front of the cube pyramid with the Milano behind it. Hundred Corpsmen left the ship, ran up the stairs of the building and lined up in rows of ten. The front men used the metal cutting devices designed by Rocket to create a number of large holes through which the soldiers could enter. As expected, the internal doors of the cubes were sealed off, so, inside the outer cubes, a second and third series of holes needed to be drilled before the soldiers could reach the inner parts of the cube building, where a number of heavily armed Skrull soldiers were hiding.

In the meantime, Rocket was lifted up by Groot at the backside of the building, to drill a hole in one of the cubes. When he got through, Groot lifted up the rest of the crew into the opening. Inside, the raccoon worked on a second hole. This way, they could reach the teleportation room. They opened the outer doors of the room and faced Gamora, who had been standing guard. She was engaged in heavy battle with the Nova Corps soldiers. The overpowering force of the Corps had already taken out most of the Skrulls, but Gamora was a fighter of a different level.

Rocket stayed in the teleportation room. His mission was to hack the system to gain control. Drax and Peter stepped into the battle zone. The allied Nova soldiers went after the last resisting Skrulls, making room for the two Guardians. Sam sped up the stairs after them, into the reactor room. There he tried to disable and secure the biochemical processor, making sure no viruses would leak.

Peter tried to shoot Gamora but was no match for her speed. She cut him badly into his left arm. Considering the fact that she easily could have killed him, this counted as a lucky break. At the same time, Gamora had to keep Drax at bay, which proved to be much more of a challenge for her. Both Guardians fought each other as furious devils, jumping and ducking to avoid being cut by the other, bouncing off walls, charging and stepping backwards rhythmically.

Groot stepped in (the holes burned into the metal had cooled down sufficiently for him not to catch fire) and took care of Peter's wound. Drax finally managed to fork Gamora's neck to the wall with both his knifes crossed. He hadn't counted on the fact that Gamora didn't plan to defend her own life. She still held her battle blade and would have ripped Drax open if Groot hadn't latched out a branch with the speed of lightning and bashed the weapon out of her hands.

Then there was silence for a moment. The fights were over. The Nova officers carried the dead, wounded and unconscious Skrulls to the outside of the building and to their ship. Sam descended the stairs. He had succeeded in switching off the virus reactors and thus the protection suits were no longer needed in this round. Rocket had managed to hack the transporter control and stepped into the cube where Drax was still pinning Gamora to the wall. Peter sat on the ground. Groot had wound bandages around his cut open arm, which was still bleeding.

Sam had taken the tranquiliser gun with him and fired a few rounds on Gamora. It didn't work. Rocket said, "She has auto-healing abilities."

Sam did a bit of math in his head and then fired twenty rounds of tranquiliser on Gamora. This had a more desirable result. She slowly slid onto the ground and Drax quickly removed his knifes so she wouldn't get cut. The cat activated a small medical device and said, "She should be out for a couple of minutes. You better bring her to the Milano quickly and shackle her up."

Drax took Gamora into his arms. Groot followed him.

Sam went over to Peter and checked his arm. It took him a minute to heal the cut and regenerate the scar tissue. Then he said to Peter, "You can take off the bandage, the wound is healed."

Peter did so and looked at his completely regenerated arm with amazement. The sleeve of his jacket and shirt were cut open for the most part. He asked Sam, "Can you repair my clothes too, while you're at it?"

Sam joked, "Not with this device. Why? Don't you know how to use a thread and a needle?"

* * *

The next phase of the fight commenced. Rocket, Peter and Sam left the building to gather with the Nova troops that were not injured during the fight. Twenty-five of them were selected to join Rocket to invade the next cube node through the transporter network. They had to go in groups of five or six men, the maximum capacity of the transporter. Rocket would lead the frontier group.

Rhomann Dey briefed the instructions for the next phase. The soldiers needed to carry a virus protection suit along that they could slip into in case of emergency. Each group carried one hole-cutting device.

The next target cube node contained half of the abducted Nova officers. It was Nova Prime's priority to get his own men back before further explorations of the network could be performed.

The groups lined up in the cube that gave access to the transporter room. Rocket went in with the storm troops, consisting of Peter (who had mended his garments provisionally), Drax and Groot (who had chained Gamora up in the Milano and had come back) and Sam. Rocket activated his control device and initiated the first jump.

The next scene that came into view was overwhelmingly scary. They dangled above what seemed to be a volcano the size of half a planet. Rocket repeated what they had heard already during the briefing, "This isn't a real volcano. We're phasin' through. In normal space-time, we're in a cube on the surface of a solid planet. Most matter around looks transparent due to the phasin'. The next two nodes will be like this too." He specially said this to his friend Groot, who was instinctively frightened by seeing this amount of red heat.

The next jumps were at least as impressive. Sam focussed on his holographic view screen and verified that they had made jumps of billions of light-years each time. The coordinates matched the planned route.

When they arrived at the final node station, the teleportation room was already filled with infected nova soldiers. They needed to fight them and make room on the teleport platform to allow the next batch to arrive. The four Guardians didn't waste a second and dove into the fight with the speed of their instincts. Groot smashed soldiers to the walls, Drax wounded them with nasty cuts, making sure they would survive as he was aware that these were hostages rather than real enemies. Peter and Rocket stunned whoever they could lock their weapons on. Sam took a few hits but apparently wore an effective hidden shielding system, so he didn't need to pay too much attention to the fight other then to see who got wounded and needed the most urgent care.

One minute and a half after the fight broke out, the teleport platform was cleared. The Guardians stood between the bodies of Nova soldiers who lay unconscious on the floor or squirmed in pain. Sam moved between them, sedating the conscious soldiers and tending to their wounds.

The next fire-team group of allied Nova soldiers arrived on the platform and stepped off quickly. Rocket had managed to open the door of the teleport cube, shooting down some fighters that stood outside. The battling group forced the rest of the infected soldiers through the door, into the next cube.

The fight continued in the hall. Drax had taken a hit and let himself be patched up by Sam. The five fresh Nova corpsmen joined into the fight and were able to disable some of their rogue colleagues. By the time the third group arrived, the renegades on the first building level were all captured and sedated. Sam followed the fire-team to the second floor to secure the monitoring and science section. There, the members of the third group and the still resisting infected Novas were an even match. Sam was in a tight spot. While he deactivated the virus installation, the fighters penetrated the reactor room. Fortunately, the fourth invasion group arrived on time to break the last resistance on the second level.

The allied Nova officers carried their infected colleagues to the transporter system and Rocket issued a number of transports back to the base planet, Bar-en-Koud 4. Five officers stayed to keep the building secure. Finally, the Guardians beamed back to the base.

* * *

Rhomann Dey ordered the next invasion step. As soon as the liberated Nova officers were brought back to the base and secured in the frigate, a new platoon was prepared. This time, an alternate transportation route was chosen to a node further away where the rest of the abducted Nova officers were expected to be found.

The Guardian storm troops made a large number of jumps to arrive in a node outside the visible universe. Again, they had to fight through a room filled with rogue Nova officers who tried to keep them on the platform to prevent more transports from coming in. After a short but violent battle, the cube door could be opened and the rest of the abductees could be overrun while a growing number of clean Nova soldier fire-teams transported in. The upper floors were secured, the captured officers were sedated and medical aid was given. The groups retreated again back to the base, leaving a Nova fire-team behind.

This time, the Guardians didn't join the invaders back to base however, but waited for fresh squads to join. To reach the next node, they needed to jump ahead, deeper into the transporter network. The next target node was larger than the ones they were in before. It probably contained a command centre of some kind. The soldiers and the Guardians were prepared for more resistance and more exotic combatants. They made sure they all had a version of the special shield designed by Rocket. This time, they would go in with a whole platoon, grouped into eight batches of six soldiers.

The Guardians and Sam went in first. They passed six relay stations and arrived at a transporter cube that was exactly as big as the previous one. This room was filled with Fish People. All team members held a shield in the left hand to fend against the poisoned needles they fired at them. Drax did most of the work, slaughtering one after the other. Apart from the poison darts, the Fish People didn't have much defences.

Then the door opened and a large eight-armed creature walked in that could best be described as a land-octopus. It used four of his tentacles as legs to support his massive body and used his remaining four body extensions to envelop Drax. The tentacle arms were slimy and unexpectedly resistant to the blows of Drax's mighty arms. He slowly suffocated as the creature pressed all air out of his lungs.

Rocket and Peter engaged the rest of the Fish People, while Groot tried to free Drax from the grip of the monster. Although he managed to pull one arm of the creature loose at a time, he couldn't get much grip on the slimy octopus who eventually tore off one of Groot's arms.

The octopus had pushed the battle onto the transportation platform, blocking arrival of more soldiers. Peter and Rocket had been hit by some poison darts they weren't able to shield themselves from.

Then Sam had an idea. He fumbled in his blue backpack and pulled out a cup filled with a brown liquid. He crawled towards the octopus, crouching and ducking to avoid being smashed by the frightening tentacles. The octopus was not targeting him - he probably didn't even notice him - but his tentacles moved dangerously while he tried to fight Drax and Groot to the death.

Sam found the beak of the animal. He fired his tranquiliser at the lower jaw. The creature opened his beak in response. Then Sam threw in the brown liquid and tried to pull the lower and upper beak together with all his might.

The squid's pupils suddenly became big. He started to foam around his beak and collapsed.

Drax slipped through the loosening tentacles and fell to the ground, were he tried to take a breath with a pain stricken face. Probably he had a lot of broken ribs. Groot wound his remaining arm around the big animal and dragged it off the platform. Soon after that, the waiting Nova troops could beam in and joined the battle.

Rocket had been hit with some darts and was sitting on the floor, pooped out and not feeling well. Sam went over to help him first. Peter had been hit too. He was still standing but his face was contorted with pain and soon he had to sit down. Sam came over and extracted the poison darts with a special device, then removed the poison from his blood stream. Rocket was already up and running again.

When Sam had treated Peter, the latter asked, "What the hell did you feed that octopus?"

Sam gave him the empty cup and said, "Smell."

Peter put the cup to his nose, expecting to sniff a vile poison and then said in surprise, "Is that coffee?'

"Yep. It's completely harmless for us. But for molluscs, caffeine is poisonous."

Peter nodded in approval. _Knowing your exobiology can pay off_ , he thought.

Finally, Sam treated the broken ribs of Drax. Unfortunately he could not help Groot with his arm, but fortunately it had already grown back partially.

Finally, a group of Nova soldiers came in, but at the same time new Fish-people arrived through the door. With them, a group of Kree soldiers, some of whom the Guardians had met before. The battle continued from the start. Sam looked at a holo-schematic of the building because he started to suspect something and then called, "Rocket?"

"I'm busy fighting."

"Yes, I know, but did you know that there is a second teleportation device in the next cube?"

"Are ya serious?" the fast moving raccoon said while he shot a couple of enemies.

"Yes. It's a secondary system. We need to go there so you can hack it."

"Damn, why did I miss that?"

"Doesn't matter. We need to go over there."

Rocket shouted to Star-Lord, "Pete, did you hear that?"

Peter replied, "Yes, I did. Get to it!"

The raccoon left the battle zone and went to the wall adjacent to the second transporter. Sam took Rocket's shield and his own to cover his rear while the ringtail used his milling device to create an opening to the next room. Just before he was done, he said, "Drax and Groot, we need some muscle here."

He stepped aside while a hole appeared that exposed the next room. It was filled with Fish People who were about to join the battle, and some Kree. Drax and Groot stepped in and smashed them with all their power, making sure that the Fish Men would pile up on the second teleportation platform to block further transports. When the room was secure, Rocket and Sam went in.

Rocket needed to adjust his program to allow for controlling the second network. After a few minutes of tinkering, he managed to gain access. He even could reverse the pending transports. At the same time in the other transporter room, more Nova corps reinforcements came in and finally the battle with the Fish Men was decided in favour of the Nova and Guardian allied forces.

The Corps soldiers took the beaten Kree back to the base planet. The Fish People were wrapped in a special foil to prevent them from causing damage. It took a number of transports back and forth until more fresh soldiers could arrive to take the rest of the building.

* * *

The cube framework they were in was larger than previous ones. It had three stores. Sam could see in his scans that there was no bioreactor in this one. There was a large control centre on the second floor, manned by Kree, who were taken out in the next round of fighting.

The second floor contained a number of connected cubes that were sealed off from the outside world. Sam could detect a number of life forms inside. Rocket and two Nova officers started drilling into the walls. However, the walls of these cubes consisted of a tougher metal alloy and it took them a long time to break through.

Finally, they managed to create a big hole in a wall of one of the cubes. As soon as they had breached the wall, two Kree soldiers started to shoot through. After a fire fight of several minutes with the well-trained Kree, they managed to take them out.

Rocket and the two Nova officers entered the room. Meanwhile, Peter had joined and stepped inside with them.

The cubes they had seen so far were empty or contained technical equipment. In contrast, this cube had comfortable furniture and decorated walls. It was a luxurious living quarter with fresh food dispensers, couches and entertainment devices that looked refined and expensive.

The room seemed to have been inhabited shortly before but now was empty. Sam looked at his scanning information and said, "The residents have moved to the next cube. There are four armed persons inside. I'm afraid we have to dig deeper."

Rocket and the Nova officers started to burn holes into the next wall.

* * *

Meanwhile, back in the ship on the base planet, troops were treated in sickbay. The kidnapped soldiers were held in locked rooms and treated as comfortably as possible. Communication about the success of the operation was coming back and the soldiers who left for the ongoing battle had a good morale.

* * *

Unannounced, Rhomann Dey entered the cube where Rocket and the Corpsmen were drilling. Peter was surprised to see Dey. He walked towards him and shook his hand. Then he warned him, "This building isn't secure yet! There is armed resistance in the next room."

The new Nova Prime replied, "I can defend myself, don't worry. I want to be there to see what my men have been up against. Can't hide behind a desk now."

Peter smiled. _A Nova Prime who stood in front of his troops, was modest and had a sense of humour. What a blessing for this war-torn universe!_

Meanwhile, Drax, Groot and some additional officers came in to prepare for the battle to come. Nova Prime looked content to see his Corps and his valuable allies, the Guardians, work so well together. He smiled, but knew that he would have to hold back his compliments a bit longer; he didn't want to distract them. The battle wasn't over yet.

Finally, two holes were created in the wall almost simultaneously. A heavy gunfight broke loose, which lasted a couple of minutes. Sam could see that behind in the room, a number of beings were hiding, whereas the Kree soldiers were fighting in a Kamikaze mood. Groot managed to pull one out and knock him unconscious; his severed arm had almost healed. Drax took out a Kree by throwing a knife into his skull. Sam, who did not like people being killed, quickly sedated and healed the Kree. Simultaneously, Peter and a Nova officer shot two more. Now they could enter.

This room was as voluptuous as the previous one. Sam entered and looked at his scans. Behind a closet, he found two very pleasant looking indigenous females from another planet. They were scantily clad and looked very frightened. Sam assured them, "We mean you no harm." He figured they would not feel threatened by a small, upright walking cat. To his surprise, they started to weep bitterly.

Sam said to Rhomann Dey, who had entered too, "I can detect three more life forms; they are hiding behind that couch on the far side of the room. Unarmed."

Dey walked in the indicated direction. He found three beings that had a more or less humanoid shape. They had arms and legs that were so thin that it was doubtful they could stand or walk. Nevertheless, they looked well fed. They were smaller than an average humanoid, about 1.40 metre in length. Their heads were large and somewhat flattened. They had big eyes that stood far apart.

Rhomann Dey said, "You are safe now. Whoever did this to you is accountable to us."

The creatures looked upset, but didn't make any attempt to move away. They chattered among themselves with slow, soft voices. It wasn't clear if they understood what Nova Prime had said.

The two indigenous women rushed to their presence. With the greatest care in the world, they picked one of the creatures up and laid him onto a couch. Then they did the same with the other two. The creatures just lay there, unmoved, looking disturbed. The two women stood to the side, as if they awaited commands.

Rocket had come in and observed the events. Then Sam turned his head and looked at the smart ringtail. He kept looking. Rocket said, "What?"

Sam gestured him to come closer. He gazed at the three creatures, one by one. Then he faced Rocket again. The racoon looked puzzled for a moment but then his face brightened and he said, "Queen bees!"

Sam nodded and said, "How harmless they look."

Dey looked at Rocket and then at Sam and asked, "What are you talking about?"

Sam simply said, "You want to find those who are accountable? Well, here they are."

Nova Prime looked at the three creatures who lay helplessly on their couches. He stared at Sam with a big frown and then again at the creatures. "Them? What on Xandar makes you say that? Aren't these victims like the rest?"

"I don't think so," Sam replied. This is a hive organisation. The Kree were willing to defend them to the death. The women are slaves and tend to the needs of their masters. So these three guys must be in charge. They and what other family they have. By the way, they do understand us. I can tell."

The three creatures didn't respond or move.

Sam continued, "My system says they belong to a species called the Slevoth. They are sentient sloth-like creatures. As you can see, they are so degenerated that they can't even walk by themselves. They need others to do that for them." He stepped to the Slevoth that looked older than the other two and was laid on the highest, most voluptuous couch. Sam addressed him, "Isn't that right?"

The Slevoth looked at him with a bored face.

"Why don't you start with giving us your name?"

Now the Slevoth started talking very slowly. Most of the present company could not understand what he was saying. His language was not in their translator database. Sam responded by making a few gestures to his virtual interface. Now they heard a very slow voice say, " ... no ... right ... to ... trespass ... on ... our ... property... Asking ... to ... speak ... is ... tiresome ... You ... should ... obey ..." and more words that came out in a complaint that took minutes to finish.

Finally, Sam looked at Nova Prime and asked, "Are you convinced now?"

Dey looked surprised, but answered, "This sounds like evidence. My Lord, how have such innocent looking creatures ever been able to create such a dangerous system?"

Rocket intermitted, "I guess if ya know a lot about genetics and microbiology, and ya have time on yer hands, ya can make a slave out of everyone. They are more dangerous on the inside than on the outside."

Peter agreed and added, "Who knows how long this has been going on? If we hadn't been able to put the right people together, this may have continued for a very long time."

To which Nova prime said, "Let's clean up this mess. I'll contact the Kree and the Skrulls. Although we aren't on speaking terms, I guess they will make an exception for this matter."


	16. Life Goes on

**Life Goes on**

* * *

 _Comment_

 _This is a short, but not unimportant chapter to close the story and forecast a shadow onto the future._

 _I got a lot of useful feedback, thank you guys for reading and reviewing! A beta reviewer is making a thorough check and when she's finished, I'll rewrite the story. Chapter 15 will get a big overhaul, it needs a more character-oriented POV._

 _In the future, I want to write more stories that involve Rocket and Sam. I think they are an interesting couple with a lot of contrast, but also similarities in background that may or may not strengthen their bond. There's a lot more fancy technology on the Tangerine that can be put to good use so who knows what strange things will happen in this universe and what the various heroes can do about it if they continue to work together._

* * *

A busy time was at hand. The species that were indigenous to the Local Group of galaxies (which includes the Milky Way and Andromeda) were transported to the frigate 'Corona'. Tama and her team had already started the process of curing the captives.

The Fish People and the octopus were a bigger problem. Nova Prime felt responsible for them. Although Rocket didn't care much, he used Sam's holographic equipment to query their world of origin. A long sequence of jumps through the secondary transporter network was needed to find this world, the ocean moon Nattigheid 2.2, the second satellite of a gas giant planet close to a star in an uncharted region of the universe. It took quite some diplomacy and a custom translator Nova Prime had borrowed from Sam to establish a friendly relation after an initial skirmish. Finally, the surviving abductees were brought back to their home world. Including the octopus, who was quite friendly once he was cured.

The Slevoth presented a problem that was under debate for a long time. The Nova Corps kept them as prisoners. The Centurions engaged in lengthy discussions about the question if the Slevoth should be punished or if they were the victims of their own evolutionary path.

When the abducted Kree and Skrulls were returned, their people responded almost with friendliness. After all, the Nova Corps had helped them out without even being asked. But soon things changed back to normal. Both the Kree and the Skrulls quickly concluded that the Slevoth had performed an act of war against them and should be extradited and convicted. But the Nova Corps, traditionally more geared towards intergalactic policing than most peoples, had no intention to hand them over. The latest news is that the Nova Corps is planning to transfer the matter to an Intergalactic Council. However, the terms of this transition are still under negotiation.

* * *

The Guardians were united again. Sam healed Gamora. After her operation, she had been sleeping for a few hours. She woke up in confusion; luckily, she was surrounded by her friends who had already forgiven her for the things she had done without being in control. As she healed faster than anyone else, it took her about an hour before she could dismiss the faint delusions she had about her stepfather, Thanos.

When she was clear in her head again, Peter couldn't resist to give her a long, warm hug. As it grew a bit uncomfortable for her taste, she gently tried to push him off her skin. But then Groot was all over her. Her eyes met Drax's, who just smiled. Rocket stood near her, a bit lost. She tugged him towards herself and gently petted the back of his head, below his ears. The racoon closed his eyes for a moment and swallowed. He had missed her a lot.

Sam just sat there and watched this special group. He had been a part of this story. He wasn't a part of this family of aliens, but enjoyed to see how they fitted so well together.

He had his own family and a mission. There was the rescue and health care operation, and he felt happy about how successful they had been able to help out. But there was a deeper mission too, which was to simply connect to this universe and make friends. He had learned that he could rely on the Guardians and his new friends could rely on him and his extended family. Who knows what the future would bring?

Moved by the love this group shared, he slowly walked towards Gamora and laid his paw on her hand. Gamora stroke the hairs of his neck, which he liked a lot. Then he went back to the bunk he sat on and continued watching the Guardians. He felt connected, but this was their special moment and he didn't want to disturb it.

Sam decided to stay a few more days. Rocket liked to use the holodeck for all kinds of reasons and Sam didn't mind. Drax liked to do combat training with all kinds of creatures he could find in the database. There was more of Groot's cooking and a bit of planet exploration for spare parts.

Finally, Sam got a call from the Tangerine. His friends wanted him back to prepare for another mission. He shut down the holodeck and put the entrance disc back in his backpack, just like the augmented vision goggles and other stuff he wasn't supposed to leave behind.

Peter and Rocket flew the Milano to Knowhere, where the Tangerine had a small mission centre. The place could be recognised by a large white circle with an orange fruit logo on its door. Like most rooms on Knowhere, the 'office' was half filled with tubes and wires. The rest was furnished with functional furniture, equipment and a kind of cat basket bunk bed that looked very comfortable, somewhere in the back of the room.

Sam's colleague Susan, the Siamese cat, had joined him in the Tangerine office. Seeing her in real life made an even bigger impression on Rocket than the hologram he saw before. He looked at her with big eyes and tried to suppress a silly smile. He liked the way she was dressed - this time she wore a two-piece white dress - and wondered why Sam preferred to walk around undressed. Although he wouldn't mind seeing the female cat in the buff too.

Susan asked Peter if everything had been going well.

Peter answered, "You guys were a great help to us. I don't know what we would have done without you."

"I'm really pleased to hear that," Susan responded happily.

"We may want to use your services again in the future."

"I was hoping that. We're still in the process of getting around in this universe. We certainly would like to work together on a next project," she said formally.

Sam gave Peter a small business-card-ish datasheet. He said, "If you ever need us, use this to contact us."

"OK, we'll do."

Sam shook Peter's hand to say goodbye. Shaking hands was not the custom way of greeting or saying goodbye for his people, so it looked a bit clumsy. Then he shook hands with Drax, who fluffed the fur on top of his head. Sam didn't know what to say. He had a lot of respect for this giant humanoid and knew that Drax wasn't a talker.

Next, he wanted to shake hands with Gamora. To his surprise, the woman lifted him up and hugged him shortly, then put him back on the floor. Sam smiled and again, didn't know what to say. He hadn't expected such a warm goodbye. Or maybe it was just that they started to see him as a cat again and liked to hug him a bit.

Then Groot did the same. A little tear appeared in one of Sam's eyes. He mumbled, "You're the best, Groot."

The gentle tree-man replied, "I am Groot!"

Finally, Sam wanted to say goodbye to Rocket but felt a bit awkward about it. Rocket had a special place in his heart but Sam didn't know how to say this.

First, they had been fighting a lot, and later on, they seemed to work together OK. But the thing was, Sam felt that Rocket was kind of family too. Most inhabitants of the Tangerine were medium sized furry, mammal-like beings like Sam and Susan. They lived in a world where no humanoids towered above them; no one ever made them feel small or insignificant. Quite opposed to this universe, where this tough raccoon was the only furry being around for light-years and where he had learned to fight like a man three times his size.

Many thoughts went through Sam's head, as he gazed at Rocket and the raccoon looked back, not sure what to do or to say either. Then, finally, Sam grabbed Rocket and hugged him. Rocket stood there as a wooden puppet, feeling way too macho to be hugged or to hug. But then he folded his arms around Sam. He noticed the softness of the cat's fur and was swept away by the warm, fuzzy feeling of this last embrace. So he forgot about himself for a moment and hugged Sam back, before they let each other go.

Sam said, with sadness in his voice, "We had fun together, didn't we? You're such a great guy! I hope you come by some time," and wiped a tear from his eyes.

Rocket said, "Yeah sure, I will." He sounded a bit uncertain. He was confused about the sudden outburst of affection. But then he looked at Susan, who smiled at him. And he added, "You know what, I just might."

* * *

The Guardians left the Tangerine office and went to one of the many bars on Knowhere to have a drink and a snack. They had much to tell to each other. Especially because two of them had missed out on parts of the adventure. Not soon after, Rocket was standing on the table in the establishment, half drunk, bragging about his accomplishments in battle. Peter tried to top that. Drax made compliments to Gamora's fighting skills and Groot said, "I am Groot," and he was right about it. If he hadn't beaten Gamora's sword out of her hands, Drax would have been cut in half.

A bit drunk, but still able to walk, they went over to the Milano and flew off towards new adventures.

 _\- The End -_


End file.
